The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) says voting cards are not for decoration purposes.
ECN chairperson Elsie Nghikembua stated that it is one to thing register, but another to vote.
Voters cards cannot be kept as souvenirs, she said.
“All of us must register afresh, which implies that if you are not registered, you will not be able to vote in November.
We don’t register to keep our voters’ cards as souvenirs. We register to vote. As the Commission, we have noticed that often, many people come out to register, but not as many come out to vote,” she added.
In recent years, the ECN has lamented poor voter turnout.
It is a situation the Commission has now decided to confront head-on by starting an intensive registration drive, which kicked off this week.
Nghikembua called on the youth to be more proactive in the registration process, as she has mostly observed the elderly population queuing up.
“In terms of the Electoral Act, people must register in the constituency in which they reside. This is because during these registrations, potential voters are registering for all the elections, including the local authorities and the regional councils’ elections. So, please register at any point if it is within your constituency,” she continued.
“We only have 52 days, and the countdown has started. I am appealing to fellow Namibians to come out and register. Do not wait until the last week or last day because we won’t be able to extend registration,” she emphasised.
Required documents include a national ID, valid passport and/or a valid driver’s licence.
To include a local authority, a municipal bill is required.
Nghikembua said in the absence of the bill, there is a form which voters can fill out to substitute that requirement.
“The same applies to those who are renting. They need to fill out that form since the bill is not in their name. They must also have lived in that area for 12 consecutive months. So, you register where you live at the moment. If there is a need to change, we can do that when we do the supplementary registration process, which will take place next year when we do the regional and local authority elections,” she continued.
Republican Party president Henk Mudge complained about the period of registration, saying he is worried about the timeframe.
“My opinion is that it is much too short, especially because there are a lot of people who don’t realise they need to register afresh, considering that the old cards are now invalid,” he told New Era.
“I also sense a bit of confusion about where people must register. Those are the things that need to be sorted out immediately – but more than anything, I am worried about the period. If you talk about 1.7 million eligible voters, and work on a 60% voter turnout, then you can calculate for yourself how many voters need to be registered”, he observed.
Mudge added that the biggest concern is rural areas, where the masses lament long distances to registration points.
“They will struggle to get there, and some would need to walk long distances. I assume that political parties will assist and get people to register, and we will do that, but that is something that needs to be cleared. I don’t see how they (ECN) can’t have mobile units – and that is the right thing to do, so that can go from village to village, and help the people who don’t have transport,” the veteran politician said.
Meanwhile, Indian-based Namibian student Nikodemus Nikodemus is disappointed and in limbo as to whether he will register.
He said the Namibian embassy in that country is yet to assist them to register.
“It doesn’t sit well with me. I feel deprived of my democratic right in this regard. We could register by travelling to Delhi with all the required documentation, but that’s a costly exercise, especially given that I stay down south, which is a lot far from Delhi,” he lamented.
Nikodemus added: “I will unfortunately now be left to watch from the sidelines as others decide my future”.
He is based in Mysore, a city in India’s southwestern Karnataka state.
The Commission said Namibians in certain parts of the world are unable to register due to logistics, but the Commission can only register voters where the country has embassies.
The spokesperson of the Commission, De Wet Siluka, said “the Commission is unable to set up registration points everywhere. Hence, it has decided to set them up at the various Namibian embassies”.
This is to ensure the credibility of the registration process.