Windhoek — The Deputy Director of Operations, Theo Mujoro, says sea-going personnel and overseas voting will take place on November 13, 2009.

Counting and announcement of results will take place there and then, but the results will be consolidated with the national tally on November 28.

Mujoro said the final phase of preparations for the November elections is proceeding according to deadlines of the ECN calendar.

He said this in an address to regional coordinators and their assistants during a training workshop that started on Monday.

The meeting focussed on training of polling officers, electoral infrastructure, nomination processes and ballot papers, voters' registration, as well as polling, counting and the announcement of the election results.

He provided specific implementation dates and crucial decisions that resulted from a strategic retreat last week in Swakopmund.

These dates were adopted according to changes resulting from new developments pertaining to the implementation of the final phase of the ECN's election calendar.

"Training of polling officials is the most critical area that will determine the success of the electoral process specifically polling, counting and announcement of results," said Mujoro.

He said since training intersects with recruitment of polling staff, the ECN had to complete its recruitment cycle first to coincide with the dates specified for the training of several thousand polling officers.

The electoral infrastructure already in place includes transportation, storage depots, deployment of personnel and election materials excluding ballot papers.

And the nomination of political parties together with their candidates and the type of elections they will contest has been finalised.

"Everything went smooth," he assured.

There will be 997 fixed polling stations and 2213 mobile stations. This figure has been presented to political parties.

Mujoro said of the 14 political parties contesting in the National Assembly election, only 12 will take part in the Presidential election. There is no independent candidate.

The Rally for Democracy (RDP) and Nudo reported from Johannesburg that the printing of ballot papers is going on very well, expressing their satisfaction with the professional manner in which the South African company, REN-FORM cc is conducting the process.

Libolly Haufiku of RDP said he was also satisfied with the safety measures the company is employing.