ECN’s 15 000 jobs ready by month-end

WINDHOEK – The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) revealed on Monday it will finalise by the end of this month the recruitment of about 15 000 temporary employees for the 2019 supplementary registration of voters and the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections.

ECN Chief Electoral and Referenda Officer Theo Mujoro made this revelation to New Era when asked about the number of applications the electoral body had received during the recently advertised vacancies. Mujoro said the recruitment process is a lengthy one.

He said this is especially when one considers the number of election officials required by the commission and whilst ensuring each stage of the recruitment process is transparent, accountable and done with the greatest professionalism and integrity as per ECN values.

“There are quite a number of stages within the process itself such as sorting of applications, capturing and subsequently the shortlisting of all the people that meet the requirements of the vacancies as they were advertised,” he said.
“I would also like to mention that there were different categories of vacancies advertised in January 2019 and some like the human resource assistants already commenced with duty on the 15th of March 2019,” he added. 

As for regional coordinators and supervisors for registration, Mujoro said they will be appointed in May 2019.
“Another category was that of the computer technicians who are expected to commence with duties the second week of April 2019,” he added.

ECN is looking to employ regional coordinators, assistant coordinators, supervisors of registration, regional logistics officers, head office store assistants, polling officials, regional IT technical support staff, IT field support staff, youth ambassadors, human resource administrators and computer technicians.

Large daily remuneration packages have attracted many government officials in the past, who subsequently put in leave to be excused from their permanent jobs to take on these temporary positions. According to the advert, recruits will be paid N$100 daily while on training while personnel like regional coordinators will be paid N$1 152 as a fixed daily rate for registration duties and a N$1 728 fixed daily rate for polling. Non-government officials are paid slightly less.

Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila in February assured unemployed youth – currently constituting 43 percent of youth in general – that they will be prioritised in the ECN vacancies.

The Office of the Prime Minister (OPM) at the time said it has taken note of concerns by the public that the recruitment of voters registration and election officials by the ECN for the upcoming elections will consider public officials while many youths remained unemployed.

Following discussions between the OPM and the ECN on these grievances, the commission will carry out the appointment process in terms of sections 24 and 65 of the Electoral Act, 2014, according to a statement issued to the media by the OPM. 

 “The OPM wishes to inform the public that assurance is provided by the ECN that the recruitment of government officials would be limited to only a few positions, whose nature of work makes it imperative that they are drawn from existing staff with given expertise and experience,” she said in a statement.