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By Dintle S Rapoo

Following the publication of the Delimitation Report by His Excellency the President of the Republic of Botswana, the Independent Electoral Commission is now on with the establishment of polling districts (wards)/ demarcation exercise throughout the country.

The purpose of the exercise is to divide the newly delimited constituencies into wards for purposes of Local Government elections. The exercise also identifies polling stations at which registration and polling will take place, within each polling district demarcated. Further, the exercise names the polling districts and stations.

Section 5 of the Electoral Act (cap 02:09) mandates the Secretary to the IEC to carry out the exercise but in the spirit of consultation, transparency and involvement of the citizens in the process, the Secretary appointed a Demarcation Committee for each constituency to which he delegated the task. These are chaired by the Heads of IEC offices in the districts and the rest of the membership was drawn from the four Local Authorities in an administrative district as well as various electoral stakeholders.

A population quota for an administrative area would be the main determining factor of the size of the polling district but consideration of some other factors, such as natural community of interest, means of communication, existing administrative boundaries, physical features, population density etc, could influence the magnitude of the polling district.

The Demarcation Committees operate by collecting written or oral evidence from the citizens in each constituency and make resolutions therefrom. At the close of the exercise, each Committee will submit a report to the Secretary to the IEC who would in turn publish it in accordance with the provisions of the Electoral Act.

These newly delimited and demarcated areas as well as the newly identified polling stations will come into effect during the 2014 general elections but any elections that may become necessary before dissolution of Parliament in 2014 will be on the basis of the old areas as created in 2002 and 2003. Consequently, the voter registration scheduled for October 2013, for the next general elections, will be based on these new areas.

Following the demise of the then councillor for Monarch West Polling District, Honourable Shah Jack, the Honourable Minister of Local Government issued an Election Instrument directing that the nominations for the election be held on the 29thJune 2012 at Mmei CJSS. The period during which nominations will be received by the Returning Officer is from 9 am to 1 pm and from 2.30 pm to 5 pm. He has further directed that any poll that may become necessary after the nomination shall be held on the 21st July 2012.

If any poll becomes necessary, it will be done at the following five (5) polling stations; Boswa Centre, Monarch South Primary School, Monarch Customary Court, Mmei CJSS and Phuthego ya ga Keresete.

Those who may have misplaced lost or destroyed their voter registration cards are urged to acquire duplicate cards by visiting the IEC office in Francistown, situated in Ntshe House, or visit any nearest IEC office.

We wish to appeal to the residents of the Monarch West Ward who had registered for the last general election, and those who registered afterwards, to take note of the polling date and turn up at the polling stations in large numbers to elect their new representative to the Francistown City Council. Remember, the success of our democracy depends on your participation in the electoral process.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is continuing with its educational exercise to inform, motivate and acquaint the public servants on elections and democracy issues in preparation for the anticipated 2014 General Elections.

The exercise comes as a result of the realization that members of the Public Service and some stakeholders may have been left out in the past in issues of civic education, hence the need to extend dissemination of electoral information to increase the level of awareness, knowledge and support among various stakeholders. 

The Commission has received unprecedented and overwhelming response from stakeholders and would like to express its deepest gratitude.  The Commission continues to request your good offices to invite its staff as resource persons to your respective general, Heads of department, District or Regional staff meetings and other gatherings to address them.


TOWARDS 2014:  Promoting stakeholder participation in the electoral process