A Note on the Practical Use of the French Voting System in the First Bechuanaland Elections
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/j.1099-162X.1966.tb00260.x |
| Author | George Winstanley |
| Date | 01 April 1966 |
| Published date | 01 April 1966 |
ANote on the Practical Use
of the French Voting System in the
First Bechuanaland Elections
By
GEORGE
WINSTANLEY
Mr. Winstanley is the
Chief
Electoral Officer, Bechuanaland.
ONE
OF the accepted constitutional proposals for Bechuanaland embodied in a
White Paper presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State in June 1964
was the creation
ofa
Legislative Assembly, to replace the Legislative Council,
the elected members of which would be elected on a basis
of
universal adult
suffrage and a simple common roll system. Thirty-one constituencies were
delimited, and four political parties contested the elections plus one indepen-
dent candidate. Voting took place on
rst
March, 1965.
Polling
As there had never before been an election based on universal adult suffrage
and conducted by secret ballot in Bechuanaland, any voting system intro-
duced would have been new to the people. This was an advantage in one way
because it was possible to draw heavily on experience gained in other countries
to
try
and evolve a system which appeared to be best suited to the needs of
Bechuanaland.
A factor which influenced the choice of the system eventually adopted was
that it had to be suitable for voting in multiple member constituencies.
The
constituencies delimited for the election to the Legislative Assembly were all
single-member constituencies
but
it was anticipated that the same voters'
rolls would eventually be used for Local Government elections and it was
apparent that some local government constituencies would be multiple-
member constituencies. ,
The
voting procedure adopted was one which was based on a procedure
used in the former French colonies which, it is reported, were commended
by the Federal Commissioner of Elections in Nigeria in 19591•
The
procedure
evolved in Bechuanaland involved the use of numbered envelopes and
coloured voting counters.
Each person applying for 'a vote was required to produce his voter's regis-
tration card to a polling officialat the polling station in respect of which he
was registered. Polling officials worked in pairs.
The
first polling official took
the registration card and by reference to the number on it quickly located the
voter's name on the election roll. He then crossed the voter's name off the
election roll, entered the date on the registration card, initialled it and returned
it to the voter. He next took anenvelope measuring
31
qX
21"
(these envelopes
were in fact
Tudor
Manilla Seed Packets which cost lOS. per thousand; the
envelopes were overprinted and bore a coat of arms and a number). He
entered the number
of
the envelope against the voter's name on the election
1The Kenyatta Election: Kenya I96o-6I by Bennett
and
Rosbery.
112
To continue reading
Request your trial