IEC Considers Withdrawing Civil Servants From Elections Assignment 

  • Wants to pull back those who failed to vote so they have a second chance
  • But IEC is concerned that they may “choose money over their rights”

SESUPO RANTSIMAKO 

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is contemplating recalling scores of civil servants who failed to cast their votes in the just-ended advance voting in order to give them a chance to vote at their respective polling areas on election day.

The Secretary of the IEC, Jefferson Siamisang, told The Botswana Gazette that such an intervention is being considered in the wake of the disfranchisement of scores of such civil servants due to shortage of ballot papers in the advance voting over the weekend.

Incentives 

“As a way of giving these people a second chance to exercise their right to vote, the IEC is considering recalling their services,” he said.

“We understand that it might be an uphill battle to convince them, more so that there are incentives involved. But we will try to talk to them.

“It is upon them to decide whether they withdraw in accordance with our request or they choose money over their rights,” Siamisang revealed in an interview.

Redeployment 

Siamisang disclosed that another option that is being considered is redeployment of the civil servants engaged. “With this, we would try to redeploy these people to areas close to their voting stations,” he said.

“Once they are redeployed, we would see how to arrange for them to cast their votes.”

According to the IEC secretary, approximately 15 000 civil servants turned out for advance voting but only a little over 12 000 cast their votes while the rest failed due to shortage of ballot papers.

Info withheld 

Siamisang blamed people due for the advance voting for the failure. “In preparation for advance voting, we asked all those assigned to provide us with information about where they would be voting,” he said.

“However, most of them failed to disclose such information. We availed ballot papers looking at the number that was provided us.

“However, a number we did not prepare for turned out to cast their votes on the day, leading to a shortage of ballot papers.

“If they had disclosed the information we needed, we would have provided the exact number of ballot papers needed at each polling area.”