Saturday 31st August, 2024

Political parties, involved in electioneering, are upshifting, and a very high voter turnout is expected at the upcoming presidential election. The Election Commission (EC) has, in a media statement, explained how to vote at the 21 Sept., presidential contest; it usually does so ahead of every election. It has clearly shown how to mark preferences for presidential candidates if the voters so desire and pointed out the mistakes that are likely to be made.

Not many voters cared to mark preferences at the previous presidential polls although most people are in the habit of casting preferential votes at other elections. At parliamentary polls, they write ‘X’ against the parties of their choice and then mark preferences for the candidates, but if a voter casts his vote by marking ‘X’ on a ballot paper at a presidential election, he or she cannot cast preferential votes; the only way he or she can mark preferences is by using numerals, 1, 2 and 3.

Political parties are urging the public to cross the boxes against the names of their presidential candidates on the ballot papers and refrain from casting preferential votes. This is in stark contrast to what they ask the people to do at other elections, where the latter are encouraged to cast preferential votes.

Why the presidential candidates and their political parties are urging the people not to mark preferences is understandable. They know that preferences become a determining factor in a presidential contest if none of the candidates succeeds in securing the presidency straightaway by obtaining more than 50% of the total number of valid votes.

Such a situation has not arisen in this country so far, but given the participation of several formidable candidates in the ongoing presidential race, speculation is rife that none of them will be able to clear the 50% mark, and the preferential votes will have to be counted. In such an eventuality, all candidates, save the first two, will be eliminated from the contest, and of the remaining ones, the person who polls the higher number of votes (including preferential votes) will become the President.

The EC is right in having explained how to vote and mark preferences, and the political parties and their presidential candidates have a right to urge their supporters not to cast preferential votes. But this could lead to some confusion among the voters although electoral literacy is considered fairly high in this country. There is the possibility of some people marking ‘X’ to cast their votes, and proceeding to mark preferences by writing 1, 2 and 3. If what is feared plays out, the number of rejected votes will increase. This is a cause for concern.

Since some confusion is believed to have arisen in the minds of the public, action should be taken to ensure that the voters will not make mistakes and the number of rejected votes will be low. The EC, the election monitoring outfits and civil society organisations will have to redouble their efforts, with the help of the media, to raise public awareness of how to avoid mistakes when they vote next month.