THE Delimitation Commission has been given five months to complete its work to enable the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to conduct general voter registration.

The third Delimitation Commission appointed by President Hifikepunye Pohamba, chaired by High Court Judge Alfred Siboleka, was told by the Head of State on Friday that the determining of new boundaries for constituencies and regions should be completed by the end of June.

"Next year we are going to have the presidential and National Assembly elections, and as such it is important that the commission completes its task on time," Pohamba said

It is against this background that the commission decided to start with its work in the Kunene Region this month.

The Delimitation Commission is an independent and impartial institution constituted for the purpose of recommending changes to boundaries of regions, creating new regions, or dividing regions into constituencies if necessary.

The commission considers factors such as the number of eligible voters in a region, its geographical features, infrastructure, resources and means of communication, its socio-economic characteristics and circumstances, the boundaries of districts and the areas of local authorities and settlement areas.

The commission will visit all the regions and interested parties can make oral or written presentations. Written submissions may be handed or e-mailed to the secretary of the commission.

The other two members are Zedekia Ngavirue, former chairperson of the National Council for Higher Education, and John Steytler, statistician general of Namibia.

Earlier the director of elections, Moses Ndjarakana, told The Namibian that the general voter registration should be done before the end of August this year. He said it would take the ECN two to three months to conduct this exercise.

In terms of the Electoral Act, general voter registration should be done every ten years.