ECN happy with election ‘dry run’

With many seeing it as a dry run for the upcoming national polls, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has described Wednesday’s special vote, which saw over 16 000 voters thronging polling stations locally as well as abroad, as a "success".Preliminary turnout indicates that 14 203 ballots were cast in Namibia, while 2 147 ballots were cast abroad by voters who voted for their preferred presidential and National Assembly candidates.Marred by voter frustration due to ballot shortages at certain polling stations, the ECN yesterday declared that “despite the challenges experienced during the conduct of the poll for the special voting, the election was successfully concluded”.Wednesday&#039;s special vote for the national elections sprang surprises within opposition ranks as the ruling party emerged as the frontrunner ahead of the elections on 27 November.Fifteen presidential candidates are on the ballot, and if the early voting results released so far are anything to go by, then the main contest in both elections is expected to be between Swapo’s candidate, 72-year-old Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and IPC’s 67-year-old Dr Panduleni Itula.Governing While Itula hopes to break the ruling Swapo Party’s 34-year grip on power, Nandi-Ndaitwah has repeatedly claimed that Swapo is the only party with the credentials to govern Namibia.But as politicians continue to canvass for political support, most polling stations were a hive of activity after they opened at 07:00 on Wednesday morning. Members from the security cluster were jostling for spots in long queues, led by their commanders who were leading the queues to cast their votes first.Election officials were forced to extend the voting hours at certain polling stations, such as the Osona polling station in the Omatako constituency, where the last vote was cast at 04:00.“The counting process commenced immediately after the close of polls at all polling stations and the first results were announced in Opuwo constituency at the Opuwo Police polling station at around 00:50, while the counting and results announcement for the Omatako constituency concluded at approximately 13:00 this afternoon,” said ECN chairperson Elsie Nghikembua at a press briefing late yesterday afternoon.Chaotic scenes characterised some polling stations in the Omaheke Region as ballot papers ran out, forcing ECN officials to scramble for additional ballots.OverviewECN blamed the ballot shortages on “a lack of communication”.The commission said it had to source an additional 6 203 ballot papers to cater for the number of voters who turned up, contrary to prior indications that only 8 800 special voters would show up."Despite the fact that these numbers were not communicated to the commission in advance by the relevant stakeholders, all efforts were put in place to ensure that no voter was disenfranchised,” Nghikembua said.Nghikembua said that, to avoid a repeat of this, the ECN should prepare enough ballot papers “to serve everyone in the security cluster” instead of allocating ballot papers only to those who had indicated they would vote.“They [the security cluster] should have alerted the commission that everyone will be voting,” she said.Nghikembua further stated that voting abroad was successfully conducted with no incidents or challenges reported.As far as voter verification is concerned, Nghikembua said: “The commission is in particular satisfied with the performance of the enhanced voter verification device, which instantly searches for a voter and greatly improves the process of verification of voters.”SADC observers readyThe special vote took place two days after the Southern African Development Community&#039;s (SADC) secretariat support team arrived in Namibia to set up the SADC elections observer mission&#039;s headquarters in Windhoek in order to prepare logistics for the deployment of observers across the country.The observers will observe the country’s pre-election phase, polling day and post-election processes with the objective of assessing the conduct of the elections in accordance with the principles and guidelines, which promote the holding of regular, free, fair, transparent, credible and peaceful democratic elections.Chairperson of the SADC Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation, Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, who also serves as the president of Tanzania, has appointed Anne Semamba Makinda, the former speaker of Tanzania&#039;s parliament, as the head of mission.Makinda and her team are currently undergoing refresher pre-deployment training in anticipation of the upcoming polls.#NamibiaDecides2024

ECN happy with election ‘dry run’

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-22

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ECN happy with election ‘dry run’

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Namibian Sun 2024-11-22

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