Stefanus Nashama
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) yesterday announced that it is prepared to commence with a mock voter registration exercise, which aims to test the real-time functionality and usability of the voter registration system.
According to the ECN’s Chief Electoral and Referenda Officer, Peter Shaama, this exercise is in preparation for the general registration of voters in 2024.
The pilot exercise will commence this week, from 15 to 17 November 2023.
In a media statement, Shaama informed that this exercise follows the completion of Integrated Solution, in preparation for the 2024 presidential and national assembly election.
“The integrated solution interfaces the voters’ registration, voter identification and verification, registration of political parties and organisations or associations, nominations and election results management module,” he said.
At the same time, he explained that the commission undertook a comprehensive electoral review process following the conduct of the 2019/20 presidential and national assembly elections and regional council and local authority elections, respectively.
This, he said resulted in the development of the new and the current system.
“The enhanced system leverages mobile technology to make voter registration more responsive, and efficient and marking a significant milestone in efforts to modernise and improve election processes,” Shaama reiterated.
While emphasising more, Shaama said there is a need to test the functionality and readiness of the system before the actual rollout and launch of the integrated mobile voter registration system.
“The enhanced system incorporates advanced security and verification measures to ensure the integrity of the voter registration process,” he further reiterated.
In this note, Shaama underscored that the system will reduce risk force registrations.
He also believes the system would enhance the overall confidence in the electoral system.
According to Shaama, the voter registration cards to be printed during the pilot exercise will be marked “Mock”, to say such cards are not authorised and valid for use in the 2024 election.
“The cards will be returned to ECN Head Quarters and destroyed afterwards,” he informed.
He has appealed to all stakeholders, particularly political parties, organisations, and associations to participate in mock exercises, to familiarise themselves with the enhanced system.
