Decision to deregister NEFF ‘momentous’, says judge

The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) took a “momentous step” when it decided to cancel the registration of the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) two months ago.

This was a remark made by judge Thomas Masuku in the Windhoek High Court yesterday, when he heard oral arguments on an application by the NEFF to have its deregistration as a political party set aside and declared unlawful.

Masuku remarked that the ECN “bent over backwards” and was lenient and accommodating to the NEFF while the party failed to comply with some sections of the Electoral Act by failing to lodge its audited annual financial statements with the commission.

He also questioned whether the ECN should have been more explicit in letters addressed to the NEFF, to state clearly that the commission would cancel the NEFF’s registration as a political party if its failure to comply with the Electoral Act did not end.

The ECN’s decision to cancel the registration of a political party was a momentous and critical step, Masuku said.

He made the remarks in an exchange with legal counsel Mbushandje Ntinda, who was one of the lawyers representing the ECN in an urgent application that the NEFF filed at the court at the end of last week.

Masuku reserved his judgement at the end of the hearing and said it would be delivered on 5 September.

The NEFF is asking the court to declare that the ECN’s decision to cancel its registration as a political party is unlawful.
The party is also asking the court to review and set aside the ECN’s decision, which was communicated to the NEFF on 17 June.

In a sworn statement filed at the court, NEFF deputy president Kalimbo Iipumbu says the ECN gave the NEFF a deadline at the end of June for its audited financial statements for the year 2022/23 to be lodged with the commission.

The ECN’s decision to deregister his party was premature, as it was taken before the deadline had passed, Iipumbu claims.

He also says the ECN’s decision was unfair, as it failed to give the NEFF an opportunity to be heard before deciding to cancel the party’s registration.

The ECN’s chief electoral officer, Petrus Shaama, says in an affidavit also filed at the court that the NEFF has been breaching provisions of the Electoral Act persistently.

The ECN warned the party in a letter on 25 April this year it would make use of the section of the act allowing it to deregister the NEFF if the party’s audited financial statements for the financial years 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 were not submitted within 14 days, Shaama says.

The deadline of 30 June was set in a letter on 24 April for the party’s financial statements for the year ending on 28 February 2024 to be submitted, Shaama adds.

The NEFF’s lawyer, Kadhila Amoomo, argued that the two sections of the Electoral Act the ECN said the party failed to comply with both have inbuilt mechanisms to deal with non-compliance with those parts of the law, but that the ECN ignored those mechanisms and rushed to deregister the NEFF.

Ntinda recounted that the ECN addressed numerous letters to the NEFF about its non-compliance with the Electoral Act, and in June last year gave the party a deadline at the end of November for it to submit its audited financial statements to the ECN.

The ECN gave the party an opportunity to be heard, he argued.

The commission extended several indulgences to the NEFF while the party continued to not comply with the law, and was reluctant to take the step of cancelling its registration, Ntinda said.

Legal counsel Lovisa Ihalwa also represented the ECN.