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Opposition off to court with ECN
EIGHT political parties do not accept the results of the National Assembly and presidential elections and will take the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to court for allegedly contravening the election law.
Notice was served on the ECN by the parties’ lawyers on Saturday.
The ruling Swapo Party won the parliamentary election with 75,27 per cent or 602 580 votes.
The opposition parties jointly collected 208 543 votes, with the RDP getting the highest number of votes, namely 90 556 votes or 11,31 per cent. RDP presidential candidate Hidipo Hamutenya won 88 640 votes or 11,08 per cent of the vote.
“Our legal team sent a notice to the ECN on Saturday to inform them that eight political parties will contest the election results,” Libolly Haufiku, administrative manager of the RDP, said yesterday.
“We hope for the court case to start already this week. Enough evidence was collected now to justify a court action. Our lawyers found we all collected sufficient evidence. As soon as all parties which are part of the court action have completed collecting more evidence of irregularities, which should be Monday or Tuesday, the matter will go ahead.”
On Friday afternoon eight political parties said they would not accept the results of the just-ended elections.
In a joint statement, the parties stated the elections were conducted in contravention of the Electoral Act.
The statement was jointly issued by the RDP, RP, UDF, Nudo, All People’s Party (APP), (CoD), Namibia Democratic Movement for Change (NDMC), and the Democratic Party of Namibia (DPN). The Monitor Action Group (MAG), the Communist Party (CP), the DTA, the National Democratic Party (NDP) and Swanu were not part of the action.
“The parties will not accept the elections results as the elections were conducted in contravention of the law. Accepting this supposed election’s outcome will be tantamount to undermining democracy in Namibia,” the eight parties said.
DTA JOINS
“We instructed a legal team to proceed to take a court order against the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) for contravening the electoral law in the country.”
The DTA, which was not part of the Friday action, yesterday said they were now prepared to join the fray.
“We wanted to wait until the final results were out late Friday to see what action to take,” DTA president Katuutire Kaura told The Namibian yesterday.
“The 2009 elections were the most ridiculous with counting of votes taking almost seven days. The DTA is prepared to join whatever course to find out what went wrong there,” Kaura said.
Asked if the DTA would now definitely join the other eight parties, he replied the party was “prepared to join”.
Arnold Tjihuiko of Nudo would not comment on the loss of one seat his party suffered. “Let us wait what the court proceedings will bring,” he said yesterday.
CoD president Ben Ulenga could not be reached for comment yesterday; nor could CoD spokesperson Natji Tjirera.
In 2004, opposition parties obtained a High Court ruling which instructed the ECN to do a recount of the ballot papers. This was done in early 2005 but was stopped halfway through, according to opposition parties, and virtually the same results were announced by ECN Chairman Victor Tonchi with Swapo even scoring a few votes more.
In the just-ended elections, Swapo lost one seat in the National Assembly to the opposition parties, which now have 18 seats, and Swapo is down from 55 to 54 seats.
Long-serving parties like the DTA, CoD and UDF all lost seats.
The DTA, UDF and Nudo will now only have two seats each, while newcomers the RDP will enter Parliament with eight members.
The Monitor Action Group (MAG) lost its only parliamentary seat, while the CoD lost four seats and only managed to cling onto one seat.
The Republican Party miraculously retained its single seat, while Namibia’s oldest political party, Swanu, which celebrated its 50th anniversary a few weeks ago, reclaims a seat in the National Assembly after a long absence.
Most opposition parties did not turn up for the official but low-key announcement ceremony at the Khomas Regional Council building in Windhoek – after 21h00 on Friday.
It was originally scheduled for the early afternoon and then delayed several times as votes for three constituencies still had to be verified.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba said he was happy with the results.
“I am a happy person and I congratulate the Namibian people who voted peacefully. I, on behalf of Swapo, accept the outcome of the election results and I am grateful to the Namibian people who trusted me with their confidence,” Pohamba said.
President Pohamba garnered 76,42 per cent of the presidential vote, or 611 241 of the 812 233 votes cast.
On Friday night only Jurie Viljoen of MAG turned up for the official announcement of the election results. The other chairs for opposition party leaders in the front row remained empty.
Two DTA members and a Nudo representative who were present preferred to sit at the back. “
“I have to congratulate the other political parties, [but] I don’t see many of them here,” President Pohamba remarked.
“Maybe they boycotted [the event], that is their own decision, but I congratulate them and to those who contested the presidential elections I say try again later – in five years. Join me and Swapo to work together for our future, peace and stability in Namibia.”
Pohamba thanked the Police for their tireless work in the election process.
“For those Swapo members who will celebrate, do so in a peaceful manner and if you raise your fist in the air for the party salute, be careful it does not accidentally land on somebody.”
