The Southern African Development Community (SADC) observer mission believes that Botswana is ready and prepared to hold what is expected to be the country’s tight electoral contest ever.
Described as Africa’s democracy poster child, Botswana will head to polls on 23 October in which a divided ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) will face a rejuvenated opposition led by Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
Launching the SADC Observer mission in the capital Gaborone, head of mission and Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister Sibusiso Moyo said an assessment of Botswana’s Independent Electoral Commission had put all the necessary measures in place and was ready to hold the elections.
This, he said, included registering more than 1.27 million voters out of a total of 1,592 350 eligible voters, establishing 2,294 voting stations across the country and embarking on an awareness campaign to publicise the polling stations.
He said the IEC also enabled voters outside the country to cast their votes by also establishing 36 voting stations to cater for the diaspora vote in 20 countries where some Batswana are resident, and conducted training workshops around the country for prospective candidates, returning officers and senior police officers.
“The pre-elections phase concluded that the Republic of Botswana is prepared to hold the General Elections,” Moyo said.
He said the SADC Electoral Advisory Council (SEAC) mission “also interacted with a number of stakeholders and the issues raised and the findings thereof will be analysed together with SADC Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM) observations in the-election phase as well as during the elections phase.”
SADC Executive Secretary Stergomena Lawrence Tax said in accordance with the regional body is expected to observe the elections based on a three-phase approach involving pre-election observation, monitoring of the actual voting and observation of post-election events.
She said the pre-election observation phase was deployed from 18-24 August during which a goodwill mission assessed the legal, political and security environment to see if it was conducive for the holding of credible elections in line with the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.
“The election observation phase will take place on the Election Day, 23rd October 2019, and this will assess the electoral process and laid down procedures and if the environment is conducive for voters to exercise their civic rights,” said Lawrence-Tax.
She said the post-election observation phase is expected to start immediately after elections with the aim to promote electoral integrity.
KO/jn/APA