African Activist Archive

Mailing to Namibia Election Watch. The mailing says three days into the Namibian elections, the United Nations reports that 80 percent of all registered voters have cast ballots. The mailing says Mike Fleshman reports that in Ovamboland he has not seen or heard evidence of systematic fraud in the elections process. Namibians are getting to the polling places and are being processed through the polls; he reports that SWAPO appears to have done a great deal of basic voter education, especially in remote areas, that has meant that people coming to vote understand the procedures and are able to move quickly through the process. The mailing says the most serious problem is that some polling places have run out of ballots, leaving hundreds of voters waiting in the hot sun unable to vote; the Lutheran Bishop Kleopas Dumeni presented UNTAG with a list of 17 stations known to have been closed for lack of ballots; Lutheran observer Ralston Deffenbaugh reported today that at one voting place he visited at Okauva in Ovamboland, the original supply of 1,200 ballots was exhausted on Wednesday with 800 people left waiting in line who did not vote that day. The mailing says an Oxfam Observer Mission has reported some disturbing flaws in the process and we have also heard of polls that only processed 30 or 40 voters and hour apparently because of deliberate tactics by the South Africans. • Ballot Shortage

African Activist Archive

Re: 80 percent Turnout After Day Three of Elections

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