Majority Zambezi residents vote despite ballot shortages

Zambezi regional Electoral Commission of Namibia says the majority of the region’s 52 173 registered eligible voters cast their votes despite ballot paper shortages experienced at some polling stations.

The presidential and National Assembly elections were conducted on Wednesday across the country.

Speaking to The Namibian on Thursday, regional electoral officer Lesley Simwanza noted a few polling stations in both urban and rural areas ran out of ballot papers by Wednesday afternoon.

He added that some polling stations had insufficient ballot papers because people could vote anywhere they chose.

“However, we were proactive in sourcing more ballot papers from other polling stations in order for the voting to continue. This has led to the voting being stopped for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on how far the polling stations are where these ballot papers were to be sourced from. We have managed to make sure that everyone voted after the ballots were sourced. A few tablets were also malfunctioning, and could not verify the voters. However, the backup tablets were on hand and were used,” he said.

He added that the last votes were cast around 01h00 on Thursday, and counting commenced afterwards across the region.

“Most of the polling stations were done by 05h00, while the remainder were still counting,” he said.

Simwanza said the elections were peaceful, as no violence or disturbances were reported at the polling stations.

Namibian police inspector general Joseph Shikongo told The Namibian during an interview on Thursday that the elections throughout the country were conducted in a peaceful manner, as no incidents of violence were reported at the polling stations.

“There were just minor issues of voters being impatient to wait in queues. However, we spoke to them and calmed them,” he said.

Shikongo then urged citizens and party leaders to further conduct themselves in
a peaceful manner while waiting for the final election results.