The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) is optimistic about reaching the 1.6 million target for registered voters in the last week of the exercise. The General Registration of Voters ends on Thursday, August 1.

The commission says they have reached 81% of the set target, which is 1.3 million registered eligible voters, and with more people turning up in the last week, they are sure to reach the target.

"If you look at the turnout for last week, we stood at 71%; that is of the first week of July. If you look at the preliminary statistics we are going to release today, we have surpassed 81% of the total voters registered. We are still optimistic that we will reach our target. Given the fact that we can see eligible voters flocking to various registration points," said De Wet Siluka, Manager of Corporate Communications and Marketing at the ECN.

Siluka further says the number of young people turning up at registration points has been impressive. This he attributed to youth groups that have been encouraging their peers to register.

"We have seen various youth groups around the country jumping on the chorus of encouraging their fellow youth to register; we have also seen some debates across youth groups where they are debating the importance of registering. We can see now that young people are getting convinced that their votes matter."

nbc News visited numerous registration points in Windhoek and observed several people turning up to

So far, the Omusati Region has the highest percentage of registered voters at 90%, followed by the Oshana and Ohangwena regions at 89% and 88%, respectively.

The Hardap Region has the lowest number of registered voters, standing at 72%, with Omaheke (74%), and the |Khomas recording 76% of registered voters.

Namibians are reminded that there will be no extended window of opportunity once the current registration process is concluded.