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2014 General Elections Report INTRODUCTION The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was established by Section 65A of the Constitution of Botswana in 1997. The Commission comprises seven (7) members headed by a Chairperson, who shall be a Judge of the High Court, and assisted by a Deputy Chairperson, who shall be a Legal Practitioner. The two are appointed directly by the Judicial Service Commission (JSC). The JSC also appoints five other members from a list of persons recommended by the All-Party Conference. Figure 1: Members of the Independent Electoral Commission page 1 of 111 The responsibilities of the Commission are as follows: To conduct and supervise elections of members of the National Assembly and Local Authorities; To conduct referenda; To ensure that elections are conducted efficiently, properly, freely and fairly; To give instructions and directions to the Secretary to the Commission with regard to their responsibilities under the Constitution and Electoral Laws generally; To perform such other functions as may be prescribed by an Act of Parliament. The IEC also conducts public awareness on its processes to maximise participation in electoral processes. For the successful undertaking of this responsibility it is, therefore, indispensable for IEC to facilitate the promotion of informed active participation in electoral processes by political parties, civil society organisations, the media and the citizenry in its entirety. The experiences, lessons, challenges and recommendations from the stakeholder evaluation workshops for the 2009 General Elections significantly contributed towards the preparation of a strategic plan for the IEC aimed at improving service delivery in conducting the 2014 General Elections. One of the significant developments during the period leading to the 2014 General Elections was the successful motivation of the improvement of the legal framework which was enacted through the Electoral (Amendment) Act, No. 20 of 2012. The amendment provided that names in the voters roll be arranged according to the alphabetical order of their surnames. The Commission also introduced two administrative initiatives aimed at taking the youth on board regarding electoral processes. These were Democracy Youth Clubs (DYC) which targeted secondary schools going youth and the Youth Ambassadors (YA) programme which focused on the out of school youth. These initiatives have had a positive impact on the 2014 General Elections. Of all the registered voters for the 2014 General Elections, 47% were the youth compared to 31% of youth who registered for the 2009 General Elections. Furthermore, rigorous sensitisation on electoral processes was extended to various key stakeholders including Politicians, Faith Sector, Public Officers, Visually Impaired, Students, Civil Society Organisations, Media personnel and the electorate at large. This sensitisation was done through countrywide meetings, workshops, print, electronic and social media. Other initiatives that enhanced service delivery during the 2014 General Elections included: Development of Braille instructions for the Braille literate to read for themselves so as to enhance the privacy of vote casting. Introduction of Helpdesk at each polling station to assist voters with reporting to the rightful polling station as well as the validity and authenticity of the National Identity (Omang) and Voter Registration Cards. Use of Tally Sheets to facilitate speedy counting of ballots cast. page 2 of 111 In an effort to increase organisational capacity, the Commission increased its human resource from One Hundred and Fifty Six (156) in 2009 to One Hundred and Seventy Three (173) in 2014 within the Office of the Secretary to scale up delivery of electoral services. A total of forty-six (46) IEC officials underwent a rigorous professional training on “Management of Democratic Elections in Africa” (MDEA) offered by the University of South Africa, to enhance their performance. All these initiatives have had a great impact in ensuring that the 2014 General Elections were conducted in a credible, efficient, proper, free and fair manner. STRATEGY The IEC considers the strategic plan a management tool from which key decisions on the Commission’s activities flow. The Commission has adopted the electoral cycle, which is the main guiding tool for the sequential execution of the electoral processes and so informs the planning process. In 2010 after the conclusion of the last electoral cycle, that is, after the 2009 General Elections, a five (5) year Strategic Plan (2010-2015) was developed. The plan was to provide a strategic direction in the implementation of the activities that drive the electoral processes in the next plan period. It represented key aspirations and deliberate intentions of the IEC in enhancing the conduct of credible elections. The development of the Strategic Plan took into consideration inputs from various reports: the 2009 General Elections, performance audit, election observers (local and international), and other key stakeholder evaluation exercises and the Commission’s decisions. In addition, a comprehensive environmental scanning exercise was also conducted through the SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis, which assisted in establishing the internal and external drivers of the Commission’s performance at the time. Critical attention was paid to the aspirations of the National Vision 2016 and the National Development Plan 10 during the planning process. It was from all these that strategic foundations being the Vision, Mission and Values were refined. These gave a clear direction of the key areas that the Commission needed to focus on going forward. Three strategic themes which informed the whole planning process were then coined as follows: i) Open and democratic electoral processes ii) Operational excellence and iii) Technology driven electoral processes and support services. The Strategic Plan 2010 - 2015 greatly helped the Commission to achieve credible 2014 General Elections. As depicted in the plan, it focused the energy and time of everyone in the Commission towards achieving its mandate. It also gave direction on resource allocation, capacity building and training of staff, staff welfare and continuous monitoring of the plan. page 3 of 111 To operationalize the Strategic Plan, a Gantt Chart/election timetable was developed from the electoral cycle. Strategies were deconstructed into sequential activities and attached to timelines. The document kept the Commission on track by providing a visual timeline from the start to finish of specific activities and was updated periodically starting in 2011 when the Housing and Population Census commenced until 2014 when the General Elections were delivered. ELECTORAL BOUNDARIES Following the Population and Housing Census of 2011, the report gave a defacto population of Two Million and Twenty Four Thousand Nine Hundred and Four (2 024 904). This was followed by the appointment of the Delimitation Commission in 2012, to review the boundaries of the existing constituencies in accordance with Sections 63, 64 and 65 of the Constitution of Botswana (Chapter 01). Although the total number of constituencies did not increase from the previous delimitation exercise of 2002, the boundaries changed significantly due to the growth and other dynamics in the population of Botswana. The exercise also led to some constituencies being renamed. page 4 of 111 Figure 2: Map of Botswana showing the 2012 delimitation boundaries. page 5 of 111 page 6 of 111 The delimitation exercise was followed by the establishment of polling districts in each constituency for the purpose of Local Government elections, in accordance with Section 5 of the Electoral Act, which states - “As soon as practicable after constituencies have been delimited, the Secretary shall divide each constituency into polling districts and establish one or more polling stations in each polling district...” Upon completion of the demarcation exercise, the number of polling districts remained the same, at Four Hundred and Ninety (490) as in 2002. The boundaries and names of the polling districts changed quite significantly, and the number of established polling stations therein increased from Two Thousand Two Hundred and Eighty Eight (2 288) to Two Thousand Six Hundred and Six (2 606) locally. The Commission also established thirty-eight (38) polling stations in other countries in terms of Section 5 (3) of the Electoral Act. From the month of August 2013, the Commission embarked on an education drive, to publicize the new electoral district boundaries, polling stations and their names ahead of the general voter registration. The same were publicised in the Government Gazette. PUBLIC AWARENESS Public awareness has been provided by the IEC at regional and national level in order to sensitise the electorate on democracy and electoral matters to enhance participation and cultivate democratic values. The IEC segmented stakeholder groups in order to provide targeted information in the form of Women, Youth, People Living With Disabilities, the Faith Sector, Political Parties, Media, and the non-literate as some of the critical stakeholder groups. Youth were a key target as premised on its large constituency that stands at about 62% of the population. The formation of Democracy Youth Clubs in schools and identifying out of school youth as Youth Ambassadors has assisted in disseminating information to the youth on civic engagement, democracy and electoral