IEC vs Opposition 'ballot box escort' judgment today
Basadi Morokotso | Thursday October 31, 2024 17:21
The two opposition parties have individually taken the IEC to court on an urgent application seeking an order for the latter to allow the individual political parties to escort the vehicles carrying ballot boxes from polling stations to counting centres to prevent the possibility of fraud. Their other concern is that there are names of voters from various constituencies which appear more than twice on the voter's rolls bearing the same physical addresses and other particulars, which they feel the IEC might have deliberately overlooked. Further, they also called for the electronic roll to be availed.
BCP lawyer Dutch Leburu requested that in the ruling, the court should consider the fact that his clients' concerns are the transparency process that the IEC seems unwilling to follow. He advised that the order to escort should therefore be granted, if at all, there is nothing to hide. By so doing, he said the court would have protected the integrity of the electoral process as well as Botswana's democracy.
Earlier on the day, Justice Taboka Slave had suggested because there is not enough time left before the polls, some of the issues raised should be set aside and only be dealt with after the general elections. She said if there are any irregularities encountered. Her fear was that if granted permission to escort, it might lead to other political parties wanting to do the same, thus causing unnecessary chaos.
'I am afraid by so doing, the court will be promising something that is unlawful. We are going to have to be extra careful with how we handle this issue because it is not as simple as you think,' advised Slave.
In response, Leburu said there is no way that illegality can be made to occur and only claim to take action afterwards when the damage is already done. He noted that the IEC should be mindful of the fact that they are a regulator and not a player, especially in this particular case. He added that the applicants have long communicated, but the IEC chose to ignore them.
'This is the kind of IEC we are dealing with. We are not impressed as this is not an ordinary case. There is no way that we can allow a litigant to try to twist the arm of the law,' he said. Justice Godfrey Nthomiwa stated that there is a commonality of issues raised by both the BCP and the UDC. His main fear, however, was the amount of time allocated to the case. He said he struggles to understand why the IEC Secretary cannot use powers vested on them to ensure that the voter's roll is availed electronically as was the case in the 2019 General Election.
'I am made to believe that this is what triggered this case to be made urgent. It leaves us wondering why the IEC Secretary cannot exercise his decision by way of providing information rightfully or why he now wants to exercise his powers differently,' he said.