Namibian watershed polls look set for court challenge
Electoral Commission of Namibia mum on reports of irregularities, inefficiencies and slow processes
Johnathan Beukes and Tileni Mongudhi
Namibia’s Independent Patriots for Change and its presidential candidate Panduleni Itula have announced that they would not recognise the just-ended election, whether they win or not.
The announcement came even before the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) had formally announced any results.
Should Itula challenge the outcome of this election in court, it will mean only the 1989 and the 2014 elections have not been challenged in court of eight elections, since the dawn of democracy 34 years ago.
For the first time since independence in 1990, opposition politicians, academics and analysts expected a real challenge to Swapo’s hegemony. Their optimism was based on a hugely reduced popularity of 2019 presidential candidate Hage Geingob, who won 87% in 2014 but only 56% in 2019.
Swapo’s dismal record with improving people’s lives, including the long-standing promise to eradicate poverty and fight corruption turned out to be mere rhetoric, with about 28% of Namibian households living in informal dwellings or shacks and about 90% of Namibians unable to afford conventional housing or qualify for a home loan.
The party has persistently faced allegations that it aids widespread corruption in the public service.
Furthermore, Swapo’s presidential candidate is a woman, in a largely patriarchal society. The party also moved swiftly to shut down the rights of sexual minorities gained through court victories.
By the time the ECN formally started announcing results, the election had already plummeted into a full-blown crisis. The ECN failed to get 1.4-million voters through 2,521 polling stations across the country’s 121 constituencies.
It has taken four days, plus a day of special voting, to complete the election for a new president and parliament.
The ECN struggled with the basics of running a free, fair and credible election.
A day before the 2024 elections, vigilant party agents discovered that the ECN was issuing original voters’ cards from its head office. Only duplicate cards should have been issued at that time, and not at the ECN headquarters.
It was clear from early on that voting in the 2024 national and presidential election would not be smooth.
Only two hours in, a shortage of ballot papers were observed. At some polling stations, voters waited for three hours for ballot papers despite the ECN headquarters being less than 30 minutes away.
The scheduled 14-hour process was also dogged by technical deficiencies with voter identification technology freezing in the summer heat.
The commission’s failure to provide plausible explanations left more questions than answers among the voters.
Even with the extension of voting days, the ECN could not properly explain the criterion used for deciding which polling stations to keep open for the extended voting period.
Another challenge at polling stations was the queue management. Traditionally election officials with the police manage the queues and ensure voting goes orderly. This time it appeared as though the voters had to regulate themselves, leading to “special people” jumping the queues.
Voters complained that Swapo leaders and highly ranked government officials would be allowed to skip the long lines by police officers on the ground. Apart from keeping order in the queues by giving pensioners the right of way, police officers also had to jump in and communicate to voters in the lines about ballot papers running out and other concerns.
This led to accusations of foreign interference in the country’s polls, with Zimbabwe’s governing party being singled out as the culprit in helping the ECN rig elections in favour of Swapo.
While the Southern African Development Community and AU elections observer missions were issuing their preliminary report, a small crowd of activists picketed outside the Mercure Hotel Windhoek to demonstrate their dissatisfaction of the electoral process.
The protesters complained about what they labelled as Zanu-PF interference in the elections. Zimbabwe’s governing party last week rubbished claims of its involvement in recent elections in SA, Mozambique and Botswana.
Zanu-PF secretary-general Obert Mpofu said the party did not have the “capacity” to rig elections outside Zimbabwe.
To compound the avalanche of reports of irregularities, inefficiencies and frustratingly slow voting processes, the ECN went underground, ignoring journalists and political parties’ questions and pleas for clarification.
Over the voting period, the ECN cancelled two press briefings at the last minute, ignoring pleas from the public and journalists to provide information and clarity.
The ECN has repeatedly been dragged to court on allegations of questionable decisions which hampered the smooth running of elections and disproportionately favouring the governing party.
In yet another legal blow, the ECN was forced to reregister two political parties it had deregistered, despite legal advice to the contrary.
The ECN was also embroiled in controversy, after cancelling an open-bidding tender process for the production and printing of ballot papers and hand-picked SA-based entity Ren-Form.
The ECN’s voter identification and verification devices also presented hiccups. The tablets being used malfunctioned and at times delayed the process for hours at some polling stations. ECN head of operations Zenia Klazen, at a media briefing, blamed the country’s high temperatures on the day, saying the devices were overheating especially at the makeshift tented polling stations.
Various parties have started the process of requesting clarity from the ECN on various matters without so much as an acknowledgment of receipt of such correspondence. This is a crucial step before parties can escalate their complaints to an electoral court.
With the counting process still far from complete, Namibia stands at a crossroads. Ahead, disputed results that may lead to another protracted court challenge.
..This story was first published in the BusinessDay
