ECN's preparations for elections

The Deputy Director of Operations of the Electoral Commission, Theo Mujoro, said that sea-going personnel and overseas voting will take place on 13 November, 2009.

Mujoro emphasized that the final phase of preparations for the November elections is proceeding according to deadlines of the ECN calendar. The Deputy Director revealed this when he addressed regional co-ordinators and their assistants during a training workshop that started last Monday at a lodge east of Windhoek.

In his address, he also focused on what he termed voting operations that include the following: Training of polling officers; electoral infrastructure; nomination process and ballot papers; voters register; and polling, counting & announce- ment of results.

The Deputy Director provided specific implementation dates and crucial decisions that resulted from a strategic retreat last week in Swakopmund. These dates, he said, were adopted according to changes resulting from new developments pertaining to the implementation of the final phase of the ECN’s election calendar.

“Training of polling officials is the most critical area that will determine the success of the electoral process, specifically polling, counting and announcement of results.”

He also said that since training intersects with recruitment of polling staff, the ECN had to complete its recruitment cycle first to coincide with the dates specified for the training of several thousand polling officers.

Mr Mujoro reported that the electoral infrastructure already in place includes transportation, storage depots, deployment of personnel and election materials excluding ballot papers. He also emphasised that the nomination of political parties together with their candidates and the type of elections they will contest have been finalised.

“Everything went smooth,” he assured. In terms of his overview of the polling operations, he said that there are 997 fixed polling stations together with 2 213 mobile polling stations bringing a total number of polling stations to an exact figure of 3 210 that will require a total number of teams amounting to 1 530 to conduct the polling.

This figure has been presented to political parties. During the nomination process, Mujoro also assured that, out of 14 parties contesting for the National Assembly, only 12 parties will part take in the Presidential elections. There will be no independent candidates. At the same occasion he announced that the ballot papers will be printed by REN-FORM cc, a company based in South Africa.

“The sample of ballot paper was ready and had been presented to political parties for final verification and sign off. The printing process started Wednesday, 28 October, 2009. It is estimated that the final delivery is 31 October, 2009 under the watchful eyes of political parties.”

The Deputy Director also assured that the total of 290 000 voters that were registered during the supplementary registration process included duplicates and voters who changed addresses.

He further revealed that the voters roll has been displayed for objections and that numerous objections were received from some of the regions. Verification for duplicates and deceased persons is ongoing at the ECN data center and the final voter’s register will be ready by the 9th of November 2009.

“Sea-going personnel and overseas voting will take place on 13 November, 2009.

“The counting and announcement of results will take place there and then and the results will then be consolidated with the national tally on 28 November, 2009,” said Mujoro.