Poor turnout for voter registration

Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) spokesperson De Wet Siluka says the commission has observed the relative poor turnout for the registration of voters in the Omaheke, Zambezi and Hardap regions during the first week of the general registration.

He says low voter engagement by especially young people has been a concern in past election periods and unregistered voters are urged to register for the upcoming general elections in November.

The general registration of voters commenced on 3 June countrywide.

Siluka says that during the first week of the general registration, the ECN recorded 181 171 eligible Namibians inside the country and at all Namibian diplomatic missions abroad.

“The turnout of eligible voters looks positive but we still have some areas that are lagging behind and have recorded a very low turnout that needs to improve. People need to go out there and register to vote. The statistics do not look impressive to say the least,” he adds.

During the first week of the general registration of voters, the regions with the lowest registration of voters were the Omaheke, Zambezi and Hardap regions.

The Omaheke region recorded the lowest registration of voters at 5 057, followed by the Zambezi region with 5 862 and the Hardap region with 6 396.

The northern regions are said to have performed better, with the Oshana region recording 15 683, Omusati recording 18 128, Ohangwena recording 20 604 and the Oshikoto region recording 13 195 eligible voters.

The Khomas region tops the charts with 40 000 eligible voters registered in the first week of general registration.

“The nation is hereby informed that the general registration of voters continues across the country and at all Namibian diplomatic missions abroad until 1 August, Monday to Saturday from 08h00 to 19h00. The commission is therefore urging all eligible Namibian citizens who have not yet registered to do so as soon as possible,” says Siluka.

ECN chief electoral officer for the Oshikoto region Ester Hipangelwa told The Namibian the majority of eligible voters are the elderly.

“The young people are also turning up to register in their numbers but the elderly are the majority, especially in the rural areas. Many of the youth prefer to be registered in the urban centres because they want to vote in the local authority elections as well,” she said.

Oshana chief electoral officer Amon Haimbangu said the youth in the region are showing an interest in taking part in the upcoming elections as they go out in their numbers to register to vote.