ECN, Come one! This ‘Katoshe’ communication is a joke!

SHITETA SHA MVULA, A VOTER, WRITES:

Greetings to your staff. We are in 2024, a year of expectations. This is your year of managing Namibia's 8th democratic, National Assembly and Presidential elections.

You have, however, not been that better at running these elections, in addition to Local and Regional Elections after every six years. Your office, I believe, is an independent one, which was marred by controversies - from being unable to read five digit numbers, to running sham elections that were ordered for a recount by court and more disputed elections in court, to EVMs without a paper trail and its removal by the order of the court. There were also arrests over the ECN's missing laptops which we in the end never heard off again as to what has happened.

While we hope you, ECN, have learnt a lesson or two from the past misdeeds. In 2024, with the registered voters that may likely reach N$ 2 million, the majority of voters are expected to be "the digital/smartphone generation" ie. the youth. This means that if ECN has not transformed and rebranded itself to fit into a digital society and world, this country's democratic system will be found wanting and boring.

Observing how the ECN is running the registration process with only one of the single SMS's that is sent through which reads: "Say hello to Democracy by registering during the ongoing General Registration of Voters. Play your part, register to vote!" And then a disclaimer: "Can't reply to this short code".

This is the communication from ECN I have in my memory. Now, what else does ECN do in its daily activities? What has ECN been doing with the Voter Education in the country? How has ECN been digitalized since its inception and looking at the digitalized world and society? Namibians and voters are more active on social media. Where is ECN's engagement platform on Facebook, Whatsapp, Instagram, Youtube, etc,? Where are visual, digital and audio messages? I visited the ECN Facebook page recently and it contains a few press statements that were posted, stating its actions towards its main stakeholders. There hardly is a dialogue between ECN and citizens (voters) when questions are posted on the reply platform. The right to information is compromised.

Interestingly, ECN will have no other options but to use a digitalized system in the registration of voters program. While we will have to use manual ballots in casting our votes, these will also need the digitalized system for capturing the votes to compile the final version of the results.

However, since ECN will have to create a Verification/Result/Tabulation Center, how will this happen when, currently, ECN is only having a "katoshe-like or non-smartphone" method that merely sends an SMS or MMS? That means it will have to hire an entity that will run the show. Will that make our elections free, fair and credible and technologically advanced? We must know who this digital entity will be as citizens, taxpayers and voters.