It’s Time To Deal With The ECN
THE Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) presided over parliamentary and presidential elections that were riddled with irregularities. This is a fact.
It is an indictment on Namibia’s democracy that, for the third time in the nearly 20 years of independence, the elections have been challenged in the High Court, namely in 1994, 2004 and again in 2009.
And although we have no quarrel with the decision of Judge President Petrus Damaseb and Judge Collins Parker, who yesterday threw the opposition challenge out of court, we are of the opinion that the ECN, chaired by Victor Tonchi, should be either dismissed or disciplined.
Swapo may see the court ruling as a victory for the ruling party, but it is a Pyrrhic one, for we cannot afford to continue with highly flawed election processes.
‘Sour grapes’ at their loss may arguably also be levelled against the nine opposition parties which challenged the election results, but again we would emphasise that it is not the question of who wins or who loses, but whether the race was fair.
Now that the Judges have thrown out the opposition’s case, with costs of both ECN and Swapo, it remains incumbent upon the ruling party Government not to wallow in ‘I told you so’ complacency, but to do something immediately about the ostensibly independent ECN which had several years to prepare for these elections, and dismally failed to make a success of the process.
A flawed process will naturally mean that those who lost will contest the outcome. Had the process been absolutely free and fair, and in compliance with law, then the opposition would not have dared to approach the courts.
It should not be construed from the fact that the case was primarily thrown out on technical legal points that the elections were well managed, for they were not. There were a number of problem areas which raised legitimate concerns about the fairness of the process, and also among members of the ruling party.
Namibia is by now a fairly practiced democracy. After 20 years we should be getting it right. Our voters’ roll should be kept up to date on a consistent basis; the counting and verification processes should be flawless by now; and the law, for example on the posting of the results outside polling stations, should be adhered to at all times. In short, the ECN should be on its toes.
Some ECN Commissioners presided over the 2004 elections, which were also queried in court, and so too, the 2009 poll. The irregularities and flaws in the process this last time have been widely written about and documented from a variety of independent and other sources and not even the Judges would have gone as far as to give the stamp of approval to what has transpired.
The Commissioners and the ECN Director must be held accountable, and for the Swapo Government to do something about this would stand them in good stead with the people of Namibia who do not believe that justice was done to the electorate in this most recent election. The Government has to show that it will not tolerate inefficiencies, particularly at such an important level and which holds dire consequences for our democracy and the Constitution which we all hold in high esteem.
We trust that Swapo will take a stand and rectify the situation once and for all, holding our elections, and our democracy, to a very high standard. Had positions been reversed, and Swapo was the loser, there is no doubt that they would have taken the same route as the opposition chose to do and challenge the outcome.
There is a very important lesson to learn from these elections, most importantly, that it doesn’t happen again. It has been a costly process and someone has to pay. It therefore makes no sense that the ECN should get Government’s stamp of approval in the process.