Oarabile Mosikare
26 June 2009
Francistown — The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) cannot fund trained local observers to organise workshops for other stakeholders.
IEC elections chief administrator, Barulaganyi Machacha said this when addressing a local observers' workshop at Marang Hotel on Wednesday.
Machacha disclosed that the IEC does not have enough funds for such initiatives. She advised the trainees to approach potential sponsors collectively under the umbrella of their mother organisations.
She also said because the IEC had limited funds, it would be cheaper for local observers to be engaged where they have registered to vote during general elections. Answering a trainee who suggested that government should declare Election Day a public holiday, she said it was problematic.
Machacha said most of the days have been taken up by different religious denominations, explaining that Saturday is not entrenched in the electoral law. "The President can declare any day an election day," she explained.
Responding to another question about the availability of Braille for the visually impaired to vote, the election chief administrator was non-committal. She did not say whether Braille would be made available for the October elections. She said they had made the template for the visually challenged.
Meanwhile, Machacha disclosed that these workshops are the first in the history of the IEC, hence they have engaged experts from the Democracy Research Project (DRP) of the University of Botswana (UB) to train prospective local election observers. She said the local observers would observe 2, 288 polling stations.
This came about after the commission realised that international observers benchmark Botswana on foreign expectations. She outlined a code of conduct for local observers and encouraged them to observe elections impartially and independently. She also implored the trainees to remain non-partisan in their duty. The trainees were also told to be professional and report their findings to the commission after the elections.
Machacha said their input was crucial because in the past the IEC amended 16 sections of the Electoral Act. "This was because of the recommendation or feedback we got from local observers." Lastly they were told that elections is a process not an event.
This was after one of the attendees voiced his dissatisfaction that they had thought they would be required to observe only the election. The IEC in collaboration with Frederich Ebert Stiftung is conducting workshops for prospective local election observers from different civil organisations throughout the country.
The objective of the workshops is to share with civil organisations electoral laws and processes so they appreciate better their role in election monitoring.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2009 Mmegi/The Reporter. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
