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Botswana: Voter Registration Cascades in Phikwe
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
13 March 2008
Posted to the web 13 March 2008
Onalenna Modikwa
Selebi-Phikwe
The post-mortem of the October 2007 voter registration exercise reveals a decline in registered voters in the Selebi-Phikwe East and West parliamentary constituencies.
During the November 2003 general voter registration, 6,743 people registered in Selebi-Phikwe West and after supplementary registration in 2004, the number increased to 9,211. However, in October last year only 4,231 registered. This indicates a difference of 2,512 compared to 2003.
In Selebi Phikwe East, 5,844 people registered for elections in November 2003 and the number increased to 8,084 after supplementary registration and in October 2007 only 3,340 people have registered indicating a difference of 2,504. Official figures place the population of Phikwe at 52,000.
Overall registration in Selebi-Phikwe indicates a difference of 5,016 between the numbers that registered in 2003 and those that registered in 2007.
Giving an overview of the 2007 general voter registration, Senior Elections Officer, Chazwagwa Fani, said the decline of 5,016 between the two registration periods is a cause of concern, hence the need to conduct a post-mortem to try and establish the reasons for the sudden slump in registration numbers in order to change the situation in the forthcoming supplementary exercise.
Fani wanted that more than 20,000 to have registered by now, but only 7,571 have done so compared to 12,587 in the same period in 2003.
He said the numbers indicate a decline from 1999 to date, 'posing a big challenge to the country's democracy'.
Party representatives and some NGOs indicate that though they encourage people to register and vote, electorates have shown that they have problems with the quality of candidates and their failure to live up to their promises once they are in political office.
Pastor Teemane suggested that the IEC should employ other methods of voter education and something should be done about the calibre of candidates.
Councillor Koos Mashaba says registration is affected in the town because people relocate to greener pastures when firms close down.
"Nowadays, electorates are enlightened. They want to know the party policies and how they benefit from those polices. They want to be represented and incorporated into the policies. Transfer of voters also breeds voter trafficking," he says.
Kgosi Kepaletswe argued that due to recent rumours of imminent closure of the mine, people have been deserting the town. The current figures, based on the population census of ten years ago, do not account for the people who died in the intervening years.
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He said electorates want leaders of substance even though some voters are bribed to vote for a particular candidate without considering his leadership qualities.
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