BMD youth leader blames IEC for low voter registration

The Botswana Movement for Democracy Youth League (BMDYL) has raised concerns about the public’s slow response towards the 2014 general elections registration.

In an interview BMDYL President Phenyo Segokgo said their findings indicates that majority of Batswana across the country have not registered for the 2014 general elections.

Segokgo laid blame on the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for inadequate polling stations and lack of aggressive information sharing with the public to encourage them to go and register.

He noted that some tertiary institutions like Botswana Accounting College do not even have polling stations while other institutions with large numbers of students have only one polling station.

“People are complaining that it is a challenge to access polling stations hence they are not registering,” he said.
According to the young leader, the IEC has not even made an effort to come up with a strong registration campaign and has not engaged the private media in promoting registration.

Segokgo said they have also noted that the public cannot make a distinction between primary elections and voting registration.
Segokgo said if IEC does not take immediate action their target of registering 1.3 million people would remain a dream.