Gaborone, Botswana — Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi is defending the country’s electoral physique amid criticism of its preparedness as vote casting started Wednesday.
Critics stated some polling stations opened insensible, there weren’t ample stations to address the sequence of voters, and lines had been lengthy.
Masisi, who is searching for a 2nd and final term, urged journalists after casting his vote in his home village of Moshupa, southwest of Gaborone, that he’s assured of victory. The election will resolve the makeup of parliament, and lawmakers will later elect the president.
Masisi also stated he became tell with the behavior of the Impartial Electoral Rate, which has confronted criticism from opposition events on the diagram in which it has handled the pre-election interval.
He stated any look that the IEC is now not independent of his executive department is “really almost cosmetic,” explaining that the executive finances course of requires the executive department to demonstrate a finances on behalf of all assorted areas of the executive, including the judiciary.
“Some are suggesting for the IEC to be independent,” Masisi stated, “[that] they must go to parliament to present [their own] budget. But they are not members of parliament. How do you get an independent body to account to politicians?”
Vote casting started with some polling stations opening insensible.
IEC spokesperson Osupile Maroba acknowledged the difficulties but stated they had been resolved early ample to permit voters to solid their ballots.
On the eve of the election, opposition events took the IEC to court docket, questioning the electoral commission’s readiness. Maroba stated the events had been within their rights to understand the intervention of the courts.
“We are dealing with a sensitive emotive process that will always bring about complaints,” Maroba stated. “It will bring about challenges that will lead to going to the courts. As the laws of Botswana allow, anybody who is not happy with a process has a way to try and seek redress.”
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Meanwhile, Masisi stated the time spent at the polling stations would possibly perhaps well perhaps additionally be improved by a digital vote casting system.
Some voters had been at the polling stations as early as 4 a.m.
One voter, Mosedi Kenosi, stated he ran out of patience attributable to the insensible course of.
“Maybe I will go back later,” he stated. “The process has been slow. I waited for more than three hours to vote. The verification process takes forever, which discourages voters.”
The elections approach because the country faces an economic downturn attributable to worn global diamond sales. The opposition has criticized Masisi’s birthday party, the Botswana Democratic Occasion, for failing to present solutions.
Polling stations had been anticipated to prevent at 7 p.m., with early outcomes anticipated Thursday morning.
This story entails records from The Associated Press.
