The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) in the Kavango West Region offloaded sensitive election materials in the absence of political party representatives.

The ECN received the ballot papers and ballot boxes at the Nkurenkuru police headquarters warehouse, where they will remain until the day of voting.

ECN officials offloaded the sensitive materials in the presence of police but without representatives from political parties, organisations or candidates.

Regional electoral officer Elizabeth Visagie said the information had been shared with participating parties, but no reasons were given for their absence.

"Political parties were informed, and I believe when the trucks were sealed before they arrived here, there were also political parties that put their seals on. We informed the political parties' representatives to be present when the material arrived; unfortunately, they were not here. As you can see, some of them only arrived now, but in the event we recorded for the sake of transparency, the sealing for verification purposes, so then we started with the unloading of the sensitive materials."

Representatives who arrived after the process were allowed to verify the materials.

Of the eight constituencies in the region, only seven will take part in the regional council elections: Kapako, Musese, Tondonro, Nkurenkuru, Mpungu, Ncuncuni and Ncamagoro Constituencies.

The Swapo Party candidate for Mankumpi Constituency, Lukas Muha, was duly elected unopposed.

Visagie further appealed to private vehicle owners to bring in their vehicles for testing, as ECN is still short on transport.

He added that the printing of duplicate voter cards is still ongoing, although community response remains low.

The printing process will conclude on Sunday.