Voter numbers or Voter names?

If you are wondering why I relentlessly pursue the matter of general elections, the reason is simple – it is the only time that I am given a say in how I want the country run. After the general elections, political parties and “civic” organisations meet at the GICC to do a “post-mortem”. We, ordinary citizens are never invited to these gatherings. Therefore to me the general elections are the beginning and the end of my democratic participation. As such, I need to be convinced that the result of the general elections IS A TRUE REFLECTION OF THE VOICE OF THE MAJORITY.

I fail to understand why, after dissolution of Parliament, Ministers then use taxpayer’s money to run the length and breadth of the country purportedly to tell us the citizens, about Government programmes.   Because Parliament stands dissolved, our input to these Ministerial and Presidential Kgotla gatherings cannot be acted upon; so why do we as taxpayers have to fund these gatherings? Indeed what other rationale is there for these gatherings other than political campaigning by the Ministers and/or President? It boils down to one phenomenon – abuse of office!

There have been two disturbing announcements by the government last (and this) year, in relation to next year’s general elections:

1. That computers would play a greater role than ever before in an election.
2. That election registration numbers would no longer be used but rather, that NAMES would be used instead.

Our population is a little over two million people.  In such a small population is there justification for widespread computer deployment during general elections? I would say yes; provided the computers, using the national registration database, are used solely to prevent an individual from VOTING MORE THAN ONCE.  I therefore accept the first of the above announcements, with the qualification just stated.
Given the first announcement, the second announcement presents a dilemma. A computer only understands numbers. Everything that we see a computer accomplish, be it our names, music or video or sound, is represented as a number in the brain of a computer.  The use of voter identification numbers in general elections therefore follows the natural process by which a computer works. My contention is that these numbers ought to be the same numbers that we are given at birth, and that remain our identification numbers until we die. We should not have to be “registered” again, specifically for elections. But numbered we must be.

Imagine the scenario of using only names and not numbers, as Vice President Kedikilwe announced. The election administrators would have a hard time determining if the voter Modise Molefe is the same as the voter Modisi Molefhi. But the numbers of these two people would be different, and no one would be faster at spotting that difference than a computer!

In conclusion, the use of computers at general elections is therefore essential, but so is the use of numbers in association with our names, a role for which our national ID numbers (Omang numbers) are ideal.