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Botswana: Voter Transfers Must Be Abolished
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
17 March 2008
Posted to the web 17 March 2008
Onalenna Modikwa
Selebi-Phikwe
The chairman of Selebi Phikwe East branch of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Tebogo Venson wants to scrap voter transfers during voter registration.
Speaking during the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) workshop organised for Phikwe, Venson said there has to be a policy for transfers to be conducted for only one week because the current situation is open to abuse.
"I don't see convincing reasons to have transfers because they encourage cheating and that must be stopped".
Councillor Koos Mashaba says that transfers breed voter trafficking. Nzwaligwa Nzwaligwa said there has to be party agents at polling stations to control voter trafficking. He said voter apathy results from ignorance of facts and people vote out of tradition and not scientific challenges.
In the last general election, politicians in the town had many court cases over voter trafficking, cheating and illegally-registered voters were struck off the voters' roll.
Participants recommended that voter transfers should have a provision in law and they should be criminalised. They said voter transfers within the same locality should be abolished.
They recommended that party agents should be attached to the polling stations during registration to encourage clear monitoring. They also said there must be a map to show developed and undeveloped plots to prevent the use of plots for voter trafficking.
"Only developed plots should be legitimate for registration and the voters' roll for transfers should be released well on time to be thoroughly checked for any discrepancy," says the councillor.
Meanwhile, participants say there should be a minimum qualification for junior certificate and above for councillors and MPs. They called for the inclusion of councillors in the country's constitution for recognition.
They called on the representatives to be reliable and honest. They should be role models and they should not cross the floor with the people's votes.
The recommendation that a representative should be accorded only three terms in office sparked debate as others felt that the electorate should control the term limit. Some suggested that they should be empowered to be able to pass a motion of no confidence on the representative who fails. Others said electorates are already empowered to change representation every five years.
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Participants also urged IEC to buy more airtime on Btv and radio to teach the nation about the elections. They proposed that the day of elections should be a weekday not to be slotted in the already existing holidays or weekends.
Earlier on, the district officer, Khumo Keeng, encouraged participants to register for elections on time to prevent incidences of voter trafficking. He urged them to vote in order to have a say in the democratic dispensation of the country.
The workshop was held under the theme "Post mortem of the 02-22 October 2007 general voter registration period: the journey towards August 2008 supplementary registration". It sought to share ideas and experiences on the last general voter registration exercise, identify bottlenecks in the process and come up with intervention strategies towards attaining increased registration figures in preparation for the 2009 general elections.
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