Manual Workers Union has rejected plans to reintroduce electronic voting machines (EVMs) in Botswana.
The union has called on the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) government to abandon the proposal, arguing that electronic voting machines remain controversial and that the public has not been convinced of their necessity.
The union said it had noted reports that the government intended to bring back a parliamentary motion on EVMs, despite previous resistance to the technology. It cited Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) secretary Jefferson Siamisang’s reported remarks before Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee that voters did not want electronic voting machines.
“That is the end of the argument,” the union said. “A reform the electoral authority itself says the people do not want is not a reform, it is an imposition.”
The union, which represents workers across local and central government and parastatal institutions, said the debate was not merely about modernising electoral administration but about protecting the integrity of the vote.
It argued that ordinary workers depend on the ballot as their principal instrument of political equality, allowing them to exercise the same democratic power as ministers, contractors and wealthy political financiers.
The union argued that electronic systems could make it harder for voters and political party agents to independently verify whether votes have been recorded and counted accurately. It contrasted electronic voting with paper ballots, which it said can be physically inspected, counted, recounted and challenged in public.
“For them, the vote is not a technical convenience,” the union said adding that, “It is the one instrument in which the general worker stands equal to the minister, the contractor and the party financier. We will not surrender that instrument to a black box.”
The union argued that electronic systems could make it harder for voters and political party agents to independently verify whether votes have been recorded and counted accurately. It contrasted electronic voting with paper ballots, which it said can be physically inspected, counted, recounted and challenged in public.
“A paper ballot can be seen, marked, placed, counted, recounted and challenged in the open,” the union said. It said “A machine substitutes trust in software vendors and whoever holds the administrative key.”
It warned that such a system could transfer electoral control from polling stations to technical administrators whose operations ordinary voters might not be able to scrutinise. The union said concerns that derailed previous attempts to introduce EVMs had not been adequately addressed.
Among its objections are the risks of manipulation and hacking, software security, the absence of a voter-verifiable paper trail and questions about the IEC’s technical capacity to administer electronic voting without damaging public confidence.
The organisation maintained that these concerns transcend party politics because every voter has an interest in ensuring that their ballot is counted as cast.
“These fears are not the property of one party,” the union said. “They are the property of every citizen who intends his or her vote to be counted as cast.” The union also challenged what it described as political inconsistency surrounding the proposal.
It argued that political parties which opposed EVMs while in opposition should not support the same technology after assuming government.
The union also raised concerns about the reported P50 million allocation discussed in Parliament, arguing that the money was intended for an electronic voter registration system and should not be treated as approval to procure voting machines.
“It does not become clean because a different party now finds it useful,” the union said.
It added that; “Parties that resisted EVMs in opposition have a duty to resist them in government. Consistency is not optional when the franchise is at stake.”
The union also raised concerns about the reported P50 million allocation discussed in Parliament, arguing that the money was intended for an electronic voter registration system and should not be treated as approval to procure voting machines.
It said registering voters and recording their electoral choices are two separate functions.
“Registration is not the vote,” the union said adding that“Capturing a name on a roll is not the same thing as recording a political choice.” It warned against what it described as attempts to blur the distinction between electronic registration and electronic voting saying it would regard such an approach as deceptive. The union has demanded that the EVM proposal be removed from the package of reforms before the All-Party Conference and not be reintroduced in Parliament, Cabinet or legislation.
It also wants the IEC to restrict the use of technology to voter registration and management of the voters’ roll, while retaining paper ballots for casting and counting votes.
