THE 16 fixed and 19 mobile polling stations for the Otjiwarongo constituency by-elections opened at 07h00 on Monday morning using ballot papers.
The use of manual voting in the by-elections is in compliance with the Supreme Court ruling on 5 February that the use of EVMs without a voter verifiable paper audit trail was unconstitutional.
“I like this process of using ballot papers. And I think the voters will be happy this time because of the assurances and transparency unlike EVMs which do not produce paper trails.
“We are happy with the process because of assurances of the candidate we are voting for. I hope this voting process will continue like this and no one will complain,” said Nekuta Fotolela who cast his vote at Pendukeni Kindergarten polling station in the DRC informal settlement in the morning.
Erastus Mbumba an independent candidate, Marlayn Sharlay Mbakera of SWAPO Party and Guiteb Sebeteus of LPM are contesting the regional council position that was left vacant by the death of councillor Julius Neumbo, in a motor vehicle accident on 10 December 2019.
The returning officer Japhet Karamatha said the voting process is going well thus far.
“The process started very well, and the community members are coming to cast their votes. We had about 10 people at each polling station that we visited this morning,” said Karamatha.
Polling stations will remain open until 21h00 this evening. Vote counting will be first be done at every polling station once the polling station is closed. The teams will move to collations centres were, they will verify all the results.
Karamatha added that the announcement of the results is expected before midnight or latest at 02h00 tomorrow morning.
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