The Electoral Court has reviewed and set aside the erroneous allocation of one seat in the Rundu Town Council to the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
Deputy judge president Hannelie Prinsloo and judges Thomas Masuku and Lotta Ambunda on Monday set aside the allocation of one seat to the IPC and ordered that the seat should be allocated to the Rundu Urban Community’s Association instead.
The court issued the order after the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) asked the court to review and set aside the Rundu local authority election returning officer’s allocation of a seat to the IPC.
ECN chief electoral and referenda officer Petrus Shaama informed the court in a sworn statement that 12 560 votes cast in the Rundu local authority election on 26 November were counted after the election.
Swapo received 7 148 votes, and was allocated four seats in the seven-member Rundu Town Council, Shaama said.
The returning officer also allocated one seat to the Rundu Concerned Citizens Association, which received 1 337 votes, one seat to Affirmative Repositioning, which received 755 votes, and one seat to the IPC, which received 642 votes.
However, the seat allocated to the IPC was supposed to have been allocated to the Rundu Urban Community’s Association, which with 674 votes had more votes than the IPC, Shaama said in his affidavit.
The returning officer’s error has the potential of creating a gap in respect of the leadership in the Rundu local authority, Shaama said.
“The fact that the seat is not properly allocated means the citizens are deprived of their right to have representatives of their choice and that causes irreparable harm to them,” Shaama remarked.
The court was also informed that the swearing-in of the newly elected members of the Rundu Town Council did not take place last Friday, as the outcome of the urgent application that the ECN filed in the Electoral Court on Wednesday last week was being awaited before councillors would be sworn in.
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