ecn.na How to Register as Voter : Electoral Commission of Namibia

Organisation : Electoral Commission of Namibia
Facility : How to Register as Voter
Country : Namibia

How to Register as Voter : http://www.ecn.na/en/how-to-register
Home Page : http://www.ecn.na/en/home-page

How to register as a voter :
How do I register? :
To vote in any of the elections, you have to be a registered voter. You can register in your respective local authority and constituency and you only have to regsiter once as a voter.

Who can register? :
You must :
** be a Namibian citizen
** be 18 years old or above and

to register as a voter you need proof of Identity, Age and Namibian Citizenship by producing one of the following documents :
** your valid green passport or New Namibian ID, or Old Namibian ID

or one of the following combinations :
** Citizenship Certificate and Old Namibian ID (if you were born outside Nambia)
** Namibian Birth Certificate and New Namibian Driver’s Licence
** Namibian Birth Certificate and two registered deponents
** Proof of Residency
Only original documents are allowed for identification purposes, no copies of any documents are allowed.

Remember:
To register to vote in any local authority council election, take along your Telecom or Municipal/Town/Village electricity and water bills to prove that you have lived in that area for 12 consecutive months. Alternatively bring along one person who is a registered voter in that particular local authority area to make a statement under oath that he/she knows that you have lived there for 12 consecutive months

The voters’ register :
A voters’ register is a document consisting of names of every registered voter in any constituency in the country or in a local authority area.

Purpose of the voters’ register :
** It helps the election officials to verify that the voters turning up to vote are indeed registered and that their names are included in the voters’ register.
** For individual members of the community to ascertain that their names are included in the voters’ register.
** To give the electorate a chance to study the register and to raise valid objections if needed.

Inspection of the voters’ register :
After the registration of voters, the voters’ register is normally displayed for public inspection at the offices of the Electoral Commission or any other places such as Magistrate offices after being advertised in the Government Gazette. Any person desiring to inspect the voters’ register shall be entitled to do so during normal office hours. For any political party to participate in an election, it must be registered with the Electoral Commission of Namibia and complies with all the mandatory requirements. This stipulation applies equally to civic associations/ organizations and independent candidates.

Types of voters’ registration :
Voter registration is the process whereby any Namibian citizen who qualifies to vote is registered to have his/her name included in the voters’ register and issued with a voters card. Registration of voters in Namibia is a voluntary exercise and is a process by which Namibian citizens of voting age register during the determined period of registration to participate in the elections.

There are tree types of voters’ registration in Namibia conducted by the Electoral Commission of Namibia. Which are :
** General Registration of Voters,
** Supplementary Registration of Voters, and
** Continuous Registration of Voters

General Registration of Voters :
Act 24 of 1992 (Section 15(1) For the purpose of any election under this Act, the general registration of voters after the commencement of this Act shall take place during a period determined by the President by proclamation in the Gazette, and thereafter such general registration shall take place at intervals of not more than ten years during a similarly determined by the President by proclamation in the Gazette: provided that the President may from time to time , for the purpose provided in this Act, determine that a supplementary registration of voters shall take place during any period determined in a like manner by him or her in respect of Namibia or any part thereof.

** The president may by proclamation in the, alter any period determined under subsection
** in respect of Namibia or any part thereof.

The same Act as amended also makes provision for the continuous registration of voters, the inclusion in any voters’ register of persons who are qualified for registration as voters but are no so registered, any such person may make application for his or her registration, if not during any subsequent general registration or supplementary registration, at any other time, except during a period of suspension contemplated under this Act.

Supplementary Registration of Voters
Continuous Registration of Voters