GABORONE, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) -- Southern Africa country Botswana is set to hold its 11th general elections on October 24, during which Batswana will vote for 57 members of National Assembly (parliament) and 490 council members for local government.
The presidential candidate from the party that wins 29 seats or more of the parliament will be elected as the new president.
According to Independent Electoral Commission of Botswana (IEC), the country's electoral body, voting will take place from 6:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.. Voters can only vote at the polling stations where they are registered.
Advance voting for Batswana residing outside the country and election officers and police officers who will be on duty during the elections day has been held on October 18.
The number of registered voters of this year's elections is 824, 073. Voting age in Botswana starts at 18. The voter registration started from 2013. The eligible voters in the country are about 1. 2 million, which take up about half of the total population of the country.
The 10th Parliament has been officially dissolved on August 29, 2014, while President and cabinet ministers will continue to hold their offices until October 23, when the Chief Justice takes charge until a new president is sworn in the office.
Nominations in the election of the president have been delivered to the Chief Justice at the High Court on September 20, while the nominations for the National Assembly for all 57 constituencies and nominations for local government elections for all 490 polling districts were scheduled on September 25.
Nomination day for presidential candidates came on the first Saturday following the expiry of 20 days after the National Assembly was dissolved.
Candidates were supported by 998 supporters as well as their proposers and seconders after which party representatives submitted registered voting colours and symbols.
The new president will present a name of his preferred candidate for the positon of Vice President after the parliament has bee constituted and taken oath. The parliament could then vote to either endorse or reject the candidate.
The presidential candidates of 2014's elections are incumbent President Seretse Khama Ian Khama of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), Duma Boko of the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) and Dumelang Saleshando of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP).
In this year's elections, 429 candidates from BCP, 490 from BDP, 432 from UDC and 1 from MELS Movement Botswana ,together with independent candidates will compete for local government council seats.
For parliament elections, 54 BCP candidates, 57 BDP candidates and 52 UDC candidates will participate in with independent candidates.
Seretse Khama Ian Khama, the country's fourth president since independence, succeeded the former president Festus Mogae in 2008 following the latter's retirement then was elected as the president during the 2009's general elections.
If no party win half of the members of the parliament, the new parliament shall meet no more than 14 days to elect the president.
To become a presidential candidate for the parliament election, a person must be nominated by no less than ten members of the parliament. The person who receives supports from more than one half of the parliament members will be declared as the president.
The ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has been in power since independence in 1966. It is widely expected that a comfortable victory for BDP in 2014 remains by far the most likely outcome.
But the BDP is expected to face stiff competition from UDC, which is a coalition of Botswana National Front (BNF) and Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD). BCP is also expected to snatch some constituencies form the ruling party.
The Southern African Development Community has launched its electoral observation mission to Botswana ahead of the elections.
