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The Namibian
June 19,
2003
Summary: Although the ward
system of single member districts has been abolished in favor of
full representation (proportional representation) through the Local
Authorities Amendment Act, single member districts still remain a
part of the Electoral Act. An amendment is proposed to remove them
from the text of the electoral act as well.
The Namibian
Debate
starting on amendments to Electoral Act
By Lindsay
Dentlinger
June 19, 2003
Windhoek DEBATE is expected to
start in the National Assembly today on proposed amendments to the
Electoral Act of 1992. On Tuesday Regional and Local Government and
Honning of local and regional elections in December. There are less
than two weeks for Parliament to pass the bill before voters
registration begins on July 1. Last week the Congress of Democrats
indicated that it intends mounting a legal challenge to the
Delimitation Commission's report which delineated the country's new
constituency boundaries. In his motivation, Kaapanda argued that by
holding more than one election at the same time, voter apathy will
be countered. The Minister said this new arrangement will also be
less expensive. The new bill proposes a system of voter
registration which provides for only one application form to be
completed for all elections. Voters will then be issued with a
double-sided voter registration card applicable for all the various
elections. The special identification and security features of the
new cards are expected to speed up the voting process as well as
guard against fraud. The proposed bill also calls for the removal
of all provisions that refer to wards and instead that proportional
representation through the party lists be enforced. Accordingly
candidates will be elected in proportion to the votes their
political party obtains in the election. The ward system has
already been abolished - through the Local Authorities Amendment Act
passed last year - but still stands in the Electoral Act. At
present, the only elections held simultaneously are the Presidential
and national elections. |
