2005-12-19Staff Report 2 "By Petronella Sibeene WINDHOEK THE Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) is ready for local authority elections expected to take place tomorrow at Oshikuku, Okahao and Ruacana, confirmed the Director of Elections Phillemon Kanime. The elections taking place tomorrow would choose five local councillors. According Kanime, ""So far things are going on well and I do not foresee any trouble anywhere. We are also done with the training of the officials."" Since Oshikuku and Ruacana are villages, the voters would choose their five councillors and three of those to be elected should be women. Okahao as a town would vote for five councillors and three of them should be women. Kanime confirmed that voting at all the three places starts at 07h00 on Saturday and would end at 21h00 on the same day. The counting of votes would follow immediately after the closure of voting and the results will be announced on the same night. ""I am sure it's not something that will take long, it's something small, we will finish before midnight,"" said the ECN chief. In Okahao and Oshikuku, only one party, Swapo, would be contesting the elections, while in Ruacana, Swapo and Nudo would be contesting. The other opposition parties could not meet the requirement of having five candidates and thus would not participate in all these elections. The registered number of voters at Ruacana stands at 997, while Okahao has 444 and Oshikuku 586 registered voters. ""We expect the turnout to be great. As rural based communities, they will definitely give the support in the elections of their councillors,"" Kanime said." 2005-12-19Staff Report 2
