OMUTHIYAGWIIPUNDI – The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) will recruit 1 212 polling and 33 field information technology officials who are to be deployed in Oshikoto region for the upcoming Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for 27 November.

This was revealed by Helena Kapenda, ECN regional coordinator, at a stakeholders’ meeting held in Omuthiya, in which it sought to share information regarding what will transpire during the period preceding the elections, as well as succeeding activities. 

Kapenda further said there would be 202 polling teams of which 132 will man fixed points, and 70 mobile teams. 

Polling officials will undergo in seven clusters a crash course on what to do. 
Kapenda added that the course for 66 polling officials, who will assist with special voting for sea-going personnel and police officers, would commence today and ends on 11 November. “There will be collation centres in each constituency where the counting of votes in that area will take place after polling venues announce their results. The constituency results are then announced at the collation centre before being transmitted to central election results at head office,” she revealed to an audience of councillors and various political party representatives.

Assuring that the equipment would be safeguarded not to  be  tampered with, she said sensitive materials such as EVMs will be escorted to venues and kept by the police at all times. Swapo representatives at the meeting, who wanted to know whether  they would receive mock ballot papers as per the norm, were informed there is no provision for such, apart from the voter education conducted by ECN officials. Stakeholders also urged the ECN to beef up their vehicle fleet to avoid any breakdown during the election process.

The commission announced in a recent statement that there is a slight increase of voters from 1 241 194 registered in 2014 to 1 358 468 eligible voters in 2019, of which 717 809 are females and 640 659 are male registered voters.

Further statistics indicate Oshikoto has 108 712 registered voters, of which 60 036 are female and 48 676 are male eligible voters.