According to their calculations contained in affidavits submitted to the High Court on Thursday, the ruling Swapo party should have received one less seat at 54, while the RP should have gained one - giving them two seats in parliament.

The RP and CoD approached the court in December to have the election results set aside and the ballots recounted.

In their most recent affidavits submitted to the court, the parties say if they are to accept the official election figures published in the Government Gazette, it would affect the seat allocation.

The official figures state that 827 402 votes were cast.

If this figure is divided by the number of available seats in parliament (i.e.

72) it would mean that the participating parties needed 11 487 votes to obtain a single seat.

The ECN allocated seats to parties on the basis of 11 305 votes per seat, according to its affidavits.

Accordingly, Swapo won 55 seats, CoD 5 seats, DTA 4, Nudo 3, UDF 3, RP 1 and MAG 1.

Based on the calculations of the CoD and RP, the RP should have received another seat, while Swapo should have received one less.

If the quota system of the ECN was applied, only 67 seats would have been allocated, the opposition parties maintain.

The remaining votes (referred to as overhang), which were not enough to qualify for a seat according to the quota, resulted in Nudo, DTA, MAG, UDF and MAG all receiving one more seat.

When this matter is heard before the court, this argument will be central to claims that the election process was flawed.

ECN Director Philemon Kanime, in his replying affidavit submitted to the High Court two weeks ago, admitted to incorrectly announcing the final results as 838 447 votes cast in the election.

He maintained, however, that this slip-up did not affect the way in which the seats were allocated.

The RP and CoD have further scrutinised the number of votes for each party stated in documentation that the ECN had submitted to the court, and point to discrepancies within these too.

The figures officially announced by Kanime differed from those published in the Government Gazette.

The officially published figures gave Swapo 1 721 extra votes, while the RP received 8 less and the CoD 29 less votes than Kanime had announced earlier.

"It is submitted that it is clear form the different tallies in respect of the various announcements that the differences in results are such that it would affect the result.

In fact, on the result now insisted upon by the first respondent [ECN], the allocation of seats is wrong," writes Theunissen, Louw and Partners, legal representatives for the applicants in their submission to the court.

A court date for the matter is still to be finalised.

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