WINDHOEK – Namibia is heading towards general elections this year, which also requires Namibians abroad to register to vote, but that doesn’t seem easy for students in India as they are not getting assistance from the Namibian diplomatic mission to get to the registration point in New Delhi at the embassy, students studying in India claim.
“The Namibian High Commissioner to India, Pius Dunaiski, says only 17 Namibian eligible voters managed to visit the embassy in New Delhi since the registration period started, and this according to him, is due to a number of constraints,” said Beatus Arnat, a student at the India Institute of Mass Communication (IIMC) in New Delhi.
There is an estimated 130 Namibians students in different cities of India, which include Chennai, Hyderabad, Calcutta, Bangalore, Pune and Mysore, which is in the southern part of India.
Mysore alone is estimated to be home to about 70 Namibian students but it is located 2 200 kilometres from New Delhi.
Arnat cites Paulina Aina, one of the eight students living in Chennai, who says she is not yet registered and neither is she planning to do so.
“As I am currently studying in Chennai, there is no registration point set up for us here. The only place I understand is New Delhi, which is about 2000 km away from my place and I do not have money for transport as well as accommodation,” she said.
By Staff Reporter