Opposition will not support IEC on electoral reforms

An effort by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to court political parties to support recent amendments to the electoral process looks set to fail after a meeting with the opposition Botswana Congress Party (BCP) did not achieve the desired results. Following the introduction of several electoral reforms, some of them generating a lot of controversy and resistance from opposition parties, the IEC rolled out a programme to hold meetings with all the registered political parties individually.

“We believe in taking the stakeholders, especially the political parties on board. Through these meetings, we want the political parties to understand the implications of these reforms and assist in the dissemination of information to the public regarding the recent changes in our electoral processes,” said the Principal Public Relations Officer of the IEC, Osupile Maroba. Among the changes forming the subject of the consultation is the increase of the fees paid by the council and parliamentary candidates. Those intending to contest for council will, from 2019, be required to pay P1000.00 instead of the current P100 while registering to contest a parliamentary seat will cost a candidate P5000.00 as opposed to the current P500.00.

On the agenda too is the cancellation of supplementary registration. The introduction of electronic voting, which is also on the agenda, has caused angst in the opposition ranks. Speaking to this publication on Wednesday after his party’s meeting with the IEC on Tuesday, the secretary general of the BCP, Kentse Rammidi, who led the six-member delegation to the meeting addressed by the Secretary of the IEC, Gabriel Seeletso in Gaborone, confirmed the meeting albeit making it clear that the BCP would not join the IEC in marketing the reforms to the voting public.

“Participatory democracy is about affordability. The moment you charge such high fees for candidates to contest will automatically exclude a lot of people who would have liked to contest had the fees been affordable. We also, as BCP have a problem with the discontinuation of supplementary voter. All IEC reports after the elections have shown that voter apathy is the bane of our democracy. It is not registration clear what the IEC will do to ensure that people register in good numbers during the normal registration period.
“Regarding the electronic voting machine, we do not really have any problems with the machines.

The problem is that there are no safeguards,” said Rammidi who added that, the credibility of an election is centred on the ability by those concerned to audit the data. “Although we have been talking about election unfairness in this country, we drew sustenance from the fact that, as far as our traditional mode of voting was concerned, you could audit the ballots,” he said noting that the BDP is likely to use the machine to rig the 2019 general election. “We are not going to be party to the public education effort by the IEC. We are still pursuing this matter through other avenues,” said Rammidi without elaborating.

Certain quarters of the opposition have intimated taking government to court over the introduction of electronic voting arguing that it is unconstitutional. For his part, the secretary general of the Botswana National Front (BNF), Moeti Mohwasa, whose party also met the IEC on Wednesday, expressed displeasure at the fact that government is engaging the parties at the implementation level and not the policy making level. “We indicated our misgivings about the electronic voting machine at the meeting and we have got no intention to participate in the public education programme because government does not take us seriously.

The machine is hackable. Regarding the increase of the fee for election candidates, our view is that the amounts are clearly out of reach for many people. Concerning the cancellation of supplementary registration, many people do not register at the first go,” said Mohwasa. By press-time on Wednesday, the BDP was still locked in their meeting with the IEC. Meanwhile, the Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) and the Botswana Peoples Party (BPP) were scheduled to meet the IEC yesterday (Thursday). This is, according to its vice president, Wynter Mmolotsi. Contacted for comment, the leader of MELS, Themba Joina indicated that his party had not been invited to any meeting by the IEC.