ECN is ready for November 27 election day

By Muyambango Ngumbele

THE  Electoral Commission of Namibia(ECN) in Zambezi region has announced their commitment to the upcoming elections slated for November 13 and 27.

This was announced by the ECN’s Returning Officers from eight (8) Constituencies of Zambezi region on Monday .

ECN shows its capability on the upcoming elections of maintaining  free and fair elections in the country.

The Returning Officers were supervisors of voter registration in the period between June and August this year , they are now ready to manage, control and supervise elections in Zambezi region.

However, during the meeting five (5) returning officers were present while other three did not manage to make it to the meeting.

According to Mr. Ben Lumponjani , Returning Officer of Sibbinda Constituency said that his team is ready and very equipped with skills on how to run elections.

“I promise that come 27 November 2024 , they will execute those skills and give you all the best results not better but best results” he promised.

He continued saying that during the General Registration of Voters (GRV),  ECN got statistics from the Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) which proved that a total number of sixty thousand (60 000 ) of the population in Zambezi region are legible to vote and during this same process which took place from 2^nd June to the 3^rd of August 2024 ECN registered a number of 52 600 voters , which makes up to 87% of 60 000 which shows the great achievement and ECN development in the region.

ECN team in Zambezi made show up on visiting all the four (4) traditional authorities in the region for the first time in history records of ECN,  and leaders and local community members were happy with the visiting.

The team has secured 227 polling stations and eight (8) coalition centres and this policy is maintained by now. “So, we are proud of what we are doing” Lumponjani appreciated.

During the meeting voter’s education was discussed which the team announced saying that this process is currently on going to the voters out there where voters are being trained on how to fold, tick the ballot paper and how to cast votes.

The mission of the ECN is to deliver free, fair and credible elections managed in the transparency, professional participatory manner in order to strengthen democracy.

Mr. Lumponjani urges people of Zambezi and the entire Namibia to unite and work together for them to achieve a common goal.

The team also informed the media and the general public that they have arranged a special voting day to people such as the military officers, police officers, those who work in the sea to vote on the 13^th of November 2024 because they may not be available on 27 November 2024 as they are busy in maintaining peace all over the country as in each of the 227 polling stations they will be two police officers to maintain safety and security.

The special voting will be held in Ngweze Community Hall to make sure that everyone who fall  in the above-mentioned categories can cast his or her vote in a specific time which is from 07:00 in the morning to 21:00 in the evening , and their results will not be released but will to be kept in the police custard for safety until 27 November 2024.

He also made  it known that each political party will be informed to submit their political agents, of which these agents will play a prominent role of acting as watching dogs for the electoral process and help the team to detect the person who intend to vote in someone’s name, tempering with the ballot box as well as those who attempt to vote twice. Agents also signs after the counting of the votes.

During this critical time agents will not be allowed to leave the polling station until after all votes have been counted signed.

A number of 937 polling officers will be recruited to make sure the process runs smoothly, and these will work together with the police officers who are trained with election agents on 12 November 2024 to focus more on security and the police to maintain law and order during the election process.

ECN maintained that there was no form of corruption neither any discrimination was used in the selection process of the polling officers in favour of the ruling party, because these people were told to submit their documents along with a declaration from the police which stated that the applicant must not be active in any of the political parties.