THE DTA of Namibia says the rigging of elections starts with the registration of voters. Therefore the shocking announcement by the ECN that more than 290 000 new voters were registered during this year’s recent supplementary registration period in comparison to the just more than 82 000 new voters registered for the 2004 election boggles the mind of any thinking person.
The further announcement that Namibia now has 1,3 million registered voters out of a projected population of 2,1 million makes this figure a complete farce. Only the people at the ECN could possibly believe such an inflated figure.
The ECN does not qualify its figure of 290 000 in any way by for example mentioning that the figures must still be verified for accuracy and all possible duplications removed.
The fact is that according to these figures, 6l percent of the Namibian population has registered for the coming election when according to the last census, more than 50 percent of the population was under the age of 16. Perhaps the ECN would like to explain how this is possible, since a voter needs to be over 18 years of age to register. According to the ECN’s press release the registration figure for 2004 was just more than 82 000. Compared to this year’s figure, the increase is beyond belief for any intelligent person. We would be interested in how the Director of Elections explains this. Our population growth is between 2,9 and 3 percent per annum. It is thus impossible that over a period of four years there could have been such an increase in our population, irrespective of the so-called ‘born-frees’. After all, these ‘born-frees’ have been turning 18 for the past five years, and did not all wait until this year to register!
After we took note of this figure we immediately discussed the matter with Mr Ndjarakana. This caused him to mail us the registrations per region. This gave us a further jolt, because according to these figures, a huge 306 482 new voters were added to the voters’ roll!
How can the Director of Elections convince the people of this country that the ECN has the capability to identify and remove from the voters’ roll those people who have registered more than once when people are able to register with an identity document and then also by means of two sworn statements and are also able to register for the National Assembly elections anywhere in the country?
If this is the correct number of registered voters, how many people applied for re-registration because they moved from one constituency to another, or changed their address, or lost their voters’ card. How does the registration officer verify the fact that a person has really lost his/her voter’s card? The fact is that even if the ECN has a computer programme that picks up duplication or ID numbers a person could still register by using his/her ID number the first time and two sworn statements the second/ third/fourth time. How does the ECN prevent this?
The hackneyed excuse by the Directorate of Elections in the past that the marking of a voter’s fingers on polling day will prevent people from voting twice does not hold water. There is plenty of evidence that the officials at polling stations, when they run out of the marking ink, have in the past allowed thousands of people to vote without receiving the required ink mark.
The DTA of Namibia has said on numerous occasions in the past that the only way people should be allowed to register must be if they have a valid ID card. The only reason why people are forced to register by means of sworn statements is because the Ministry of Home Affairs has still not, 20 years after Independence been able to issue 1,3 million ID cards! Because of this use of sworn statements it is clearly imperative that political parties MUST be allowed to be an integral and active part of every registration campaign.
Be that as it may, it is as clear as crystal that Swapo and the Directorate of Elections has already with the registration of voters started to rig the coming elections. The DTA calls on every registered voter in Namibia to be more dedicated than ever to casting his/ her vote on 27 and 28 November.
We call on the electorate not to again as in the past give Swapo a two-thirds majority on a silver platter. It was because people abstained from voting that Swapo got their huge majority in the past, not because two-thirds of voters gave them a mandate to rule. We know that they abstained because these irregularities in the past made them believe their vote was worthless. Swapo and the Directorate of Elections exploited this and that is why there has been no change in the system.
We also call on voters not to simply cast their vote, but also to become involved in the party of their choice by making themselves available as election agents who can carefully monitor the actual voting at the polling stations.
The Directorate of Elections and Swapo can fool some of the people some of the time, but they can’t fool all of us all the time. The hour of truth has arrived for both Swapo and the Directorate of Elections. Let us deny Swapo a victory in the upcoming elections. Let’s prove to ourselves that we can bring about the changes we want and deserve! We don’t deserve a Swapo government any longer! Let’s stand up and be counted. Stop the rot – go and vote because we deserve better.
