Election Management Bodies in the Sadc Region — An Appraisal of the Independence of Botswana’s Independent Electoral Commission

Abstract

It is now widely accepted that elections should be organised by an independent body. Over the last decade, there has been a worldwide swing towards independent electoral commissions as the preferred form of election management bodies (EMBs). It has been observed that over 52 per cent of EMBs around the world today are said to be independent. In emerging democracies, the trend has been to establish independent election management bodies as a way of building the confidence of the electorate and political parties in the electoral process.