‘Electoral commision should do better’ – disgruntled voters

A Windhoek woman, who queued at the Baumgartsbrunn polling station 29km outside Windhoek, accused the presiding officer of allowing those that he knows to cast their votes first.

“We have been here since the morning and late in the afternoon we are still not assisted. People coming after us have been assisted before us and I am with my children,” she said.

Some said the police officer and presiding officers were accepting bribes from people to allow them to enter first.

However, presiding officer Lesley Rudath said the delay was caused by a lack of ballot papers and that they were waiting to get a response from the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) head office in Windhoek.

“It is not true, I allowed the elderly and one woman who had swollen feet to enter first,” he said.

Rudath further said the polling station was overcrowded with people from Windhoek, who were more than those who actually live at Baumgartsbrunn.

At the Daan Viljoen 7de Laan Otjomuise polling station, the process was also at a stand still for an hour due to overheating machines.

Those that waited to vote raised the same sentiments about the delayed process and the threat to democracy.

“This is unacceptable, the ECN has failed us,” says Martin Paulus (40) who was in the queue with his partner the entire day Extremely long queues were observed at the Otjomuise Clinic polling station and the 7de Laan open area.

A first-time voter who prefers to remain anonymous questions why a pencil was used instead of a pen.

Gerry Shiimi (37) says he was at the polling station by the Wanaheda Catholic Church and later went to a different polling station at Moses van der Byl Primary School where he managed to vote.

“I came here with my friends. I opted for the other polling station because it was close to where I live, but the queue was not moving and I was advised that there is a polling station that was moving better compared to Wanaheda,” he said.

Presiding officer at Moses van der Byl Primary School Ndatigangi Andreas told The Namibian that the process was smooth and the only challenge encountered was a system shutdown.

“The system becomes slow every now and then. That allows us to wait on it to start functioning properly again, from 10 to 20 minutes,” she said.