WINDHOEK- The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) will hire helicopters to be used specifically in Kunene and Zambezi regions during supplementary registration of voters, polling process and voter education due to the geographic nature of these two regions.
This was revealed by the National Assembly Speaker Professor Peter Katjavivi when he motivated the ECN budget on Wednesday in Parliament.
ECN is required to conduct polling for the Presidential and National Assembly elections which are preceded by supplementary registration of voters culminating in polling process countrywide in November.
During this nationwide exercise, ECN through this program is equally expected to recruit, train and deploy around 14,000 election officials- being polling officials, administrative and IT field support staff at various levels to man polling related activities constituting a total of around 2,293 polling teams.
Katjavivi said during 2019/2020, ECN is expected to recruit, train and deploy election officials at various levels to man national supplementary registration of voters related activities.
He also said ECN will recruit and train a total of around 5,154 registration officials for deployment locally and in all 34 Namibian Embassies across the globe to register all eligible voters constituting a total of around 804 registration teams.
Election officials include registration officials, administrative and IT field support staff.
Further, he noted the ECN shall also procure critical registration materials and hire trucks to transport materials from Windhoek to all 13 regional stores located outside Windhoek as well as vehicles for the regional management and registration teams.
ECN is expected to conduct elections for the newly proclaimed Ondangwa Urban Constituency by-election which is to take place on June 15, as a result of vacancy in Oshana Regional Council, following the appointment of Elia Irimari, former Councillor for this constituency as Governor for Oshana Region on March 18.
For the 2019/2020 financial year, the ECN has been allocated a total amount of N$288,4 million as an operational budget. Out of that total, N$49 million has been allocated for personnel expenditure, for both permanent and temporary staff.
However, Katjavivi said the non- personnel expenditure has been reduced to N$239 million making it practically challenging for ECN to deliver its constitutional and legal mandate.
In executing its mandate, the ECN has two crucial programmes under its budget, namely: administration of elections, and voter and civic education.
These two programmes are complemented by programme policy coordination and support services which is charged with the responsibility of providing administrative support function to these programs.
The proposed ceiling for 2019/2020 financial year has been cut from N$357 million to N$288 million.
That means the total proposed budget has been cut with N$81 million. At the same time the entire capital project budget was cut to zero.