Why voter registration..?

My National  Identity card (Omang card) has my unique ID number, which identifies me in the National database of Botswana. Furthermore, my birth date is recorded on the card. The law requires me to carry my Omang card at all times. We are told that in a democracy like ours, every person above the age of 18 years is entitled to vote.  Therefore the moment a day of elections is chosen; all valid-to-vote Omang cards can be calculated and announced to election monitors and the public at large.

Having established “which” Omang cards will be valid on Election Day, the only thing remaining to make the Omang card the Election card, is the place where the bearer MAY vote. But does that really matter if the computers (and election administrators of all parties) RECORD the ID of everyone who goes into the voting booth? No one can vote twice, by changing voting places, because even if they tried, their name and number will show more than once in the voting list and their vote will therefore be rejected by both the computer and the election administrators. In other words, bussing of voters will be futile; because those bussed will be merely reducing their numbers wherever they came from, and there at putting themselves at a disadvantage.

Thus using the Omang card as the sole voting document will result in a next-five-years snapshot of who voted where, such that participants in any in-term by-elections will be easily identified, should their MP or councillor die during term. The Omang database is readily available in Government computers. The whole expensive exercise of “registering” voters is therefore an unnecessary and time-wasting duplication of effort.

Some may argue that a person from Shakawe in the north-west corner of the country, should not be allowed to vote in Mochudi , in the south-east extremity of the country, and determine who will be MP or councillor in the latter area; something that my scheme of things described above would permit! Such an argument does not hold water, considering that a person from Shakawe may relocate to live in Mochudi any day and any time, without need for anyone’s permission or knowledge, for that matter. As things stand today, even with the requirement for “voter registration” in place, a person from Shakawe can relocate to Mochudi just a day prior to registration, and still register and vote in Mochudi , anyway.

So, why register voters at all? I ask you.