Political parties are urging the Electoral Commission of Namibia and the Legislature to develop robust mechanisms to ensure voter registration inclusion, particularly for citizens living abroad.
Out of the over 1.4 million who registered, only 2 159 Namibians registered to vote at foreign missions, figures showed.
This number, political parties stated, is disappointing.
Speaking to New Era, the secretary of the Swapo Party Women’s Council Fransina Kahungu expressed their dissatisfaction with the “low turnout” in foreign missions.
“For ECN to reach a 91% turnout is an achievement.However, I am not happy with the number of foreign missions registered. It is too low. Something must be done to include those people. Let the system not prevent people from registering. Let us take part in the mobilisation so that we demand accountability from those we have put in power,” she said.
She urged President Nangolo Mbumba, the Legislature and the ECN to find ways to accommodate those left out, citing the long distances to registration points as a primary barrier. “I know that the ECN’s calendar was approved, and we will not put the blame entirely on the ECN. Hence, we call upon those in the Legislature and the President to come up with a mechanism that will accommodate these people. I have made my investigation, and I was informed that most of these people did not register because of the vast distances to the registration points,” Kahungu said.
She further encouraged Namibians who have registered to participate in political party activities to be informed about their choices before voting. Youthful lawmaker Maximalliant Katjimune of the Popular Democratic Movement also noted the low foreign mission numbers.
“It’s a very low number, and that’s probably because many of our citizens in foreign countries cannot access the nearest point in those jurisdictions where they can register. We need to look into other mechanisms, such as online registration in the future,” he said. Despite his concerns, Katjimune commended eligible voters for registering.
“We aimed to reach a 100% voter registration turnout. However, 91% is still a good number, and we thank all eligible voters who took their time to register. Now, our task is to ensure that everyone who has registered turns out at the ballot and casts their vote on 27 November 2024,” he said. “The ECN’s decision not to extend the registration period and not to hold supplementary registration is unfortunate. The Act clearly states that the registration period might have run until 31 August 2024. So, it’s an unfortunate decision that needs to be looked into,” Katjimune continued.
Lifalaza Simataa, the spokesperson for the Landless People’s Movement, echoed similar sentiments to those of Katjimune and Kahungu. “We as LPM have learned that there is a bit of difficulty when it comes to foreign missions, and not all Namibians can register due to the distance or scarcity of Namibian embassies. This made it difficult or rather expensive for those outside the country to have an opportunity to register to vote. Hopefully, in future, Namibia will work on having a stronger presence internationally to ensure that those beyond our borders don’t struggle,” Simataa said. He continued, “We believe that such a decision fails to fully capture all possibilities to register as many Namibians as possible. A supplementary registration, which is a fair practice, could allow those who may have been struggling with identification documents or any other issue to have a period dedicated to sorting out any issue and registering.”
Reacting, De Wet Siluka, ECN’s spokesperson, yesterday said: “The law does not provide for us to extend registration beyond the established foreign missions.”
Moreover, he stated that the commission is in constant consultation with the Namibian Federation of the Visually Impaired to ensure all citizens can participate in the electoral process independently and confidentially.
Siluka shared this in an earlier interview with New Era, following the announcement of the preliminary results of the general voter registration issued on Friday. Although the data segregation to determine how many people with disabilities, women, youths and men registered will only be completed this Friday, the commission announced the successful conclusion of the fourth general voter registration. The data segregation will be done through the central server using the automatic fingerprint identification system (AFIS), data segregation, and the production of the provisional voters register (PVR).
“So far, I do not have the exact numbers of how many visually impaired people registered as the segregation of the data to determine such will be done this Friday. However, we are in consultation with the federation as per our disabilities mainstream policy to ensure they have participated freely,” Siluka said.
He added that Braille ballot papers are in place to accommodate visually impaired voters. The commission has described the general voter registration as a success. He said during the last four days of the registration period, a total of 152 472 eligible voters were registered.
“This figure represents an average of
38 002 registered voters per day during the week of 29 July – 01 August 2024, which is the highest turnout recorded to date, compared to the overall turnout recorded weekly since the commencement of GRV. This brings the overall cumulative number of eligible Namibians registered as voters, both within the country and at Namibian diplomatic missions abroad, to 1 467 604,” Siluka boasted.
The cumulative number of registered voters per region showed that Oshana and Kunene regions have both registered 97% while the Kavango west region has the lowest turnout of 83%. Khomas region has registered 287 107 out of 315 957 residents as per the 2023 census. In 2019, the ECN registered 1.3 million voters, of which 820 227 cast their votes, representing a turnout of 60.4%.