New Era

KATIMA MULILO â€" Hundreds of election officials and political party agents in Caprivi toiled through the night, counting ballot papers for the 2009 Presidential and Parliamentary elections that started on Friday morning and wound up on Saturday night.

As some polling stations lack electricity, the preliminary counting and subsequently the verification process of ballot papers cast for both elections that took place simultaneously in Caprivi and across Namibia were conducted under lanterns.

When New Era drove around some settlements in Katima Mulilo Rural and in Kabbe some of these villages had the subdued atmosphere of a church on a Monday morning. While at Chetto in Kongola constituency characterised by a lack of television and radio receptions with alarming poverty levels, unenthusiastic villagers were lackadaisical, as hundreds of them instead opted to go and gather wild fruits and berries on Saturday.

Though the attendance in the entire Caprivi Region was satisfactory and was above expectations, an unknown but large number of voters at Mahohoma disgruntled by the fact that their constituency now falls under Kabbe reportedly also stayed away from the polls.

At the fixed polling station established at Sanjo Secondary School, Masubia Chief Kisco Liswani III and a coterie of tribal advisors and Indunas were the first to cast their votes when the presiding officer of this station, Jimmy Simataa, flung its wooden doors open.

One of the bottlenecks registered was the case of one drunk man, who tried unsuccessfully to disrupt the elections on the first day of voting. There was a similar case involving two drunks on Saturday.

According to Alfred Mbukusa, the Regional Elections Coordinator for Caprivi, there have been cases of pregnant women having gone into labour while waiting to vote.

While New Era was interviewing Mbukusa a call came in reporting that one pregnant woman had been rushed to hospital after she experienced abdominal cramps and was going into labour.

On the entire electoral process in Caprivi, he remarked: "I must report the whole process went well. We didn't experience any major hiccups or challenges."

He noted the fact that even at polling stations serving high-density areas at Ngweeze Community Hall, the Old Legislative Assembly Hall, Mabuluma Clinic at Chotto and Ngweeze Clinic most of the voters had cast their votes and there were no queues by the time voting concluded at 21h00 on Saturday.

He said the other problem encountered was the fact that some election teams ran out of ballot paper for both the Presidential and National Assembly elections though this shortcoming was immediately remedied, as these stations were able to get the materials.

Two voters, who wanted to cast their votes twice in Katima Mulilo, were detected when their hands were put under the scrutiny of the ultra-violet light reader.

For now all the counting of the votes has been completed in Caprvi and all ballot papers and "sensitive" election materials have been transported to the six verification points that have been established at Kabbe Community Learning and Developmental Centre that was chosen after the initial centre of Dr Sam Nujoma Combined School failed to make the grade because this centre lacked Internet facilities. The other verification points are at Sanjo Senior Secondary School in Katima Rural constituency, Sikosinyana Senior Secondary School in Sibbinda constituency and Kongola Combined School.

He said the preliminary counting has been completed and that what now remains is the verification of these votes that will be followed by the announcement of the results today.

Though Mbukusa could not release any poll figures, sources indicated that the total number of people who cast their votes at Sanjo stood at 1Â 400 when voting ended Saturday, but this figure could be higher considering some people voted elsewhere.

At the fixed mobile station at Chetto in Kongola constituency, Swapo Party received 86 votes for the ordinary Presidential poll, while DTA only received 12, RDP got one and RP received 13, Nudo, APP and UDF all received a single vote each. And there were three spoilt votes for the ordinary Presidential poll. For tendered Presidential poll Swapo received 10, RDP two, DTA, APP, RP and CoD each got a single vote and none of the ballot papers were spoilt. The ordinary election for the National Assembly saw Swapo receiving 90 votes, RDP got 12, RP, DTA, APP and NDMC got one apiece.

The preliminary tendered results provided for this station for which there were no spoilt ballots also saw Swapo securing 10 votes while RDP, DTA, APP and NDMC received one each.

The tiny settlement of Chetto is located about 200 km west of Katima Mulilo.

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