Compiling the Voters roll

The voters roll, or the electoral voters register, is mainly compiled by way of a voter registration process during continuous or designated ad hoc voter registration drives.

Any Namibian citizen 18 years of age or older is eligible for registration, provided they meet the registration criteria (e.g. possessing national identity documents, is resident in a particular constituency, etc.).

The current voters roll dates back to 2003. After registration periods, the ECN is supposed to update and “clean-up” the voters roll by checking for duplications and mistakes and by removing “ghost” voters, who are mainly those who have died or left the country and renounced their citizenship. This should be done in continuous consultation with the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is responsible for the registration of deaths and citizenship changes.

Electoral authorities should ideally also check the number of voters on the roll against the number of national identity cards issued by Home Affairs, as well as make use of national population statistics to estimate the number of existing registered voters and the projected number of prospective new voters expected to register during registration periods.

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