Preparations for the 2024 general registration of voters, to be held from June 3 to August 1, are in full swing in the Zambezi Region. 

The Supervisor for Registration of Voters in Sibbinda Constituency and Acting Chairperson of the Supervisors of Voters, Ben Luponjani, made this assurance during a stakeholder engagement meeting.

The meeting brought together various stakeholders, including representatives of political parties. 

According to Luponjani, teams have already been deployed in the region for voter education purposes. 

"In terms of voter education, our teams are out there in the region. We have two teams: one is dispersed to the western side of the region, and the other is currently in Impalila. They are now doing civic and voter's education, and it might take 15 days before registration starts."

Luponjani also addressed some concerns noted during the engagement, including the recruitment process and the eligibility of voters coming to register. 

"Those who can identify themselves, who are 18 years of age or older, who are Namibians, and so on. Also, there was a question about ECN employment that some of the ECN supervisors previously said they used to employ their relatives for jobs in ECN, and then from our side, we have indicated strongly that there is no one who's allowed to do that or either the supervisors to use their positions to take their families to be part of ECN. That won't happen this year; all the employment processes will be done by the Windhoek commissions, not the supervisors."

Zambezi Governor Lawrence Sampofu called on stakeholders to focus on voter education and refrain from engaging in political campaigns during that time.

"When we look at voters, registration is not for campaigning, no, but just to inform our voters out there that registration is commencing. We are not coming to vote because some people will be starting to mobilise to start voting. Let us inform our people to bring all of the requirements that are required for this registration. People who come to the registration point and are told not to bring their ID, water bill, or anything else are always misinformed. We should inform our people, the electorate, that it is registration time, not voting time."