African Elections Project (Accra)
19 October 2009
Gaborone — A day after the 10th elections in Botswana since Botswana's independence in 1966,results coming in very slowly.
In order to make results of Botswana council and parliamentary accessible, the Independent Electoral Commission(IEC)of Botswana is publishing results live at its website at http://www.iec.gov.bw/elections/results.php About 725,000 BaTswana went to the polls yestersday , Friday 16th October 2009 to elect council officer and members of parliament for 57 seats parliament. Members of parliament will then have the duty and responsible to appoint the president of Botswana. Strong indication points to President Lieutenant General, Seretse Khama Ian Khama of Botswana Democratic Party BDP getting back into office until year 2014.
Seven political parties and 15 independent candidates are contesting the country's 57 constituencies, however the main race is between the ruling Botswana Democratic Party [BDP], the Botswana National Front [BNF] and the Botswana Congress Party [BCP] The BDP's stake of the popular vote has been steadily declining in recent years, but under the first-past-the-post electoral system it has held its parliamentary majority with 44 seats after 2004 elections.
Speaking to African Elections Project, Mr. Mpho Maifalane, spokesperson of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of Botswana said polling is expected to officially close at 19 hours Central Africa time but as the electoral law stipulates, voting can continue until the final voter in the queue casts their ballots. A numbrer of polling stations are still open with voters wating in line to cast their votes after the official closing, according to African Elections Project reporters.
Mr. Maifalane, indicated that final results are expected to start trickling in before Midnight and in order to facilitate the easy contact between the IEC and stakeholders such the media, civil society, observers and political parties among others, the IEC has set up a contact centre at BOIPUSO HALL; popularly known as fair grounds to serve at the venue for the official announcement of results declared at over 2,800 polling centre spread across 57 constituents in Botswana.
After the final results are declared at the polling stations, they are transmitted to 490 polling districts for onward transmission to national head office of IEC based in Gaborone via the use of fax.
According to the The Independent Electoral Commission [IEC] spokesperson over all the voting phase of the elections was successful with no hiccups reported so far.
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