- Approves budget for another round of supplementary registration
- Supplementary registration to be conducted at polling stations
SESUPO RANTSIMAKO
Parliament seems to have revisited a recent motion by the former MP for Mahalapye East, Yandani Boko, for supplementary registration of voters to be done at designated polling stations across the country rather than at offices of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) offices.
Before the current supplementary voter registration, Boko unsuccessfully tabled an urgent motion for the IEC not to register voters at its offices but to instead conduct voter registration at designated polling stations.
P65 million
However, Parliament seems to have reconsidered its rejection of the motion and has approved P65 million for another supplementary registration to be done at polling stations as Boko’s motion sought.
Presenting his Committee of Supply Budget on Organisation, the minister of State, Kabo Morwaeng, proposed P284.55 million to be allocated for the 2024 general elections and an additional P65 million allocated for another supplementary registration.
“It is worth formally reporting that the general voter registration period that was appointed for the 1st to 30th November 2023 was suspended indefinitely pending the conclusion of a court case in which the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) sought to observe the registration process as well as recording all the particulars of the voters as they presented themselves to register at different polling stations, said Minister Morwaeng
Abroad
“The case was concluded at the Court of Appeal on the 19th December 2023 with the court agreeing with the IEC that indeed what the UDC wanted was not provided for in law.
“Consequently, the general voter registration exercise was conducted from 5th January to the 3rd February, 2024. A total of 736 424 Batswana registered as voters in all local polling stations and abroad.”
He noted that the 736 424 registered voters represent about 54 percent of the target 1.3 million, saying a lot of work remains to be done to achieve the target.
“Currently, there is ongoing supplementary voter registration running from 26th February to the 15th March 2024,” Morwaeng added “This is also expected to attract quite a number of Batswana to register as voters in readiness for the general elections,” added the minister.