Voters’ roll accurate enough, ECN claims

A TOTAL of 1 181 835 Namibians are eligible to vote in the presidential and parliamentary elections on Friday and Saturday, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) said yesterday.

Although admitting that the voters’ roll is not absolutely accurate, ECN Director Moses Ndjarakana assured international election observers that ‘checks and balances’ are in place to ensure not only free and fair elections, but elections that will also be ‘credible and transparent’.’The world over … it is not possible to maintain a voters’ roll that is 100 per cent or 101 per cent accurate,’ he said, referring to the names of deceased people that still appear on the roll, as well as some voters whose names appear twice.The tally on the voters’ roll has fluctuated wildly since supplementary voters’ registration ended in September.ECN Chairman Victor Tonchi informed the nation at the time that the roll had ballooned to 1,3 million voters, only to correct himself to 1,16 million shortly afterwards. A printed summary and CD-ROM of the voters’ roll that was released to political parties in mid-November contained the names of only 961 175 voters. The list was released with the blessing of the commission, ECN Commissioner Shafimana Ueitele told The Namibian recently.Adding up the names on the roll, The Namibian could find only 1 144 878 registered voters – 36 957 fewer than the figure released by Ndjarakana yesterday.’The final voters’ register prepared and certified for the coming elections stands at a total number of 1 181 835,’ he said.The 3,2 million ballot papers – 1,6 million for the presidential election and the same number for the parliamentary election – and other ‘sensitive election materials’ were dispatched to the regions on Sunday under full Police escort, Ndjarakana said.The ballots were packed and sealed by the ECN under the supervision of political parties, he said. The papers will be dispatched to the polling stations on Friday morning.Ndjarakana said political parties can send as many of their observers to monitor the voting and counting process as they want.’There is no limit. You can deploy as many as you can and we will accredit them,’ he said.The ECN has established 998 fixed polling stations and 2 238 mobile stations, which will be manned by 536 mobile teams, each attending to four stations over the two polling days. Ndjarakana said there are about 11 300 polling and counting officials. Nearly 1 000 of them were seconded to the ECN from government ministries, but the majority are unemployed youth with high school qualifications.Polling operations in each region will be overseen by a regional co-ordinator, helped by two assistant regional co-ordinators. Polling teams will be headed by presiding officers, and returning officers are in place for each of the 107 constituencies, he said.jo-mare@namibian.com.na