WINDHOEK – With nearly a million voters registered by last week, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) say they are busy consolidating and uploading all the statistics from every region and those from other countries around the world before releasing the final official results for the voter registration process.
Voter registration, which started on January 15, ended on Sunday with almost a million people registered for the National Assembly and presidential elections scheduled for November. The ECN has been releasing provisional data weekly since the registration period kicked off.
“Although there were hiccups in the beginning, we managed to iron them out and the whole process went well. It ended on Sunday. We are happy with the whole process and during this week we will be busy consolidating and uploading data from the regions. We are also in the process of receiving voter data from missions and embassies worldwide where the registration was conducted,” said Theo Mujoro, the ECN acting director.
By last week Wednesday, about 977 164 people had registered as voters with the ECN.
The figure includes 974 545 potential voters registered in the country and 2 619 registered in other countries around the globe.
Besides the Khomas Region, most voters were registered in Omusati, Ohangwena, Oshikoto, Oshana, Erongo and the Kavango East and West.
Further, Mujoro said during this week the ECN will be receiving all voter registration kits from the regions that were used in the field. The ECN reported that they will also be busy checking for duplicates to determine whether people registered more than once.
The vehicles used during the registration process will also be returning in the course of the week since they will be used to transport voter registration kits from different regions.
Mujoro also revealed that during the course of next week, the ECN will call for a press briefing to give a more detailed report on the whole general voter registration process with provisional statistics.
Last week’s provisional results indicated 2 619 registered voters outside Namibia are registered in 29 different countries, with South Africa having the largest number at 1 329. Zimbabwe, Russia, Malaysia and China are some of the other countries with over 120 Namibians who have registered to vote.
The ECN says Namibians who did not find time to register when the registration of voters ended last Sunday would have time to register in the supplementary registration period that will precede the November elections.
The date for the supplementary registration period will be announced at a later stage.