Uakutura Kambaekua 

OPUWO – The voting procedure in Opuwo yesterday was delayed due to various polling stations encountering technical issues with their scanners and tablets.

Voting at the Ministry of Youth and Sports and the regional police station in Opuwo commenced slowly, with early morning voters forming long lines as polling stations faced difficulties with the electronic voting equipment.

Nearly 400 voters had to wait for 26 minutes in line to cast their ballots at the Ministry of Youth polling station, following reports of a malfunctioning scanner and tablet that displayed an error message. 

The Electoral Commission of Namibia was able to address and resolve the issue before voting could continue.

Presiding officer at the youth ministry, Margaret Rodrigues, told Nampa voting had been halted for at least 26 minutes as the team had to fix the technical issues on the scanner and the tablet, adding that the voting process has commenced.

“We had a few technical challengers with our scanner. The scanner is supposed to detect if there is ink on voters’ fingers, but it seems to be giving us an error. But as we are speaking those challengers are being attended to,” she said.

Jennette Uakuhu, the presiding officer at the Opuwo police station, noted that they had battery challenges with their verification machine, delaying the voting process for at least six minutes before the first person cast their votes.

“When we came to open, we realised the verifier light was not working because of the battery, so we had to change batteries,” she said.

Uakuhu also noted that the process is now running smoothly, and that she foresees a good voter turnout.
Four political party agents are present at both polling stations.
-Nampa