WINDHOEK – The Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) Graham Hopwood says the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) did not want outside agencies to scrutinise the voters’ roll gazetted on Friday.
The ECN felt it was their own responsibility to ensure the voters’ roll was accurate and also for reasons of keeping their ‘integrity intact’.
“We said we wanted to give it (voters’ roll) an extra check. We were going to get a data base expert, but they said they were only obliged to political parties,” said Hopwood, adding that that they were also willing to get some people to go through the provisional voters’ register but were not granted that opportunity.
But he said they did not expect too many problems with the voters’ roll because there is not much chance of duplication or ghost names appearing on the advanced biometric information system.
“It’s not such a big issue,” he said, adding that he hopes the ECN would get it right this time and not repeat the 2009 election mishaps where there were a number of duplications.
Hopwood says the voters’ roll format would be easy to scrutinise while noting it is important the ECN also ensures the voter verification scan barcode is working, which they would monitor during the Windhoek West by-election.
But the Executive Director of NamRights, Phil ya Nangoloh, said the voters’ roll should have been issued a long time ago because political parties have now been put at a disadvantage.
He said he was not sure whether all political parties contesting the presidential and National Assembly elections have received a copy of the voters’ roll, but he was sure there would be serious blunders in these elections.
Ya Nangoloh said that for one, the electronic voting machines (EVMs) are controversial because they do not produce a paper trail and are open to what he terms “abuse”.
“This is again an indication of lack of transparency. Elections must not only be free and fair but must be credible,” he said.
However, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) Deputy Secretary of Information and Publicity, Nghiningiluandubo Kashume, said they were generally satisfied with the voters’ roll as there were not many hiccups.
“Political parties were asked to provide lists for the presidential and National Assembly (elections) and we were quite happy with the process,” he stated. Nudo Secretary General Meundju Jahanika said they were also satisfied with the voters’ roll and had no problem with it.
All Peoples Party (APP) National Coordinator for Elections, Lena Nakatana, said they held a meeting at ECN, which was only to sign ballot papers for sea-going personnel and foreign missions but nothing else was communicated to them.
ECN’s Director for Operations, Theo Mujoro, confirmed the voters’ roll was gazetted on Friday.
However, when contacted again to find out how the provisional voters’ roll compares against the final one, how many voters are on the roll, whether the ECN will provide an electronic version of the roll or how many names were scrapped off the voters’ roll, his phone went unanswered.
Electronic voting presents some advantages, such as faster results, a reduction in the number of spoilt ballots, reduced costs of running an election and the reduction/elimination of avenues for potential manipulation.
An insider at ECN ruled out the possibility of the EVMs being tampered with before the elections, explaining the machines all came with sealed serial numbers and the number of eligible voters would be programmed as per constituency at election time.
He said in order to change the data on the EVMs, the seal would have to be broken, which would indicate that the particular voting machine had been tampered with.
He added that the Namibian machines were adapted in such a way that when you press a button against the candidate or political party you are voting for, a light will go off.
Then you have to press the button again to register your vote, which will show you who you voted for.
The EVMs coupled with a voter registration kit (VRK) constitute an advanced biometric information system that allows for the registration of voters in a speedy and accurate way.
The VRK produces identification document (ID) type voter cards that contain a variety of security features and uses biometric aspects to capture data for each person at the registration venue, which includes fingerprints, a photo and personal information in text format.