THE Election Commission of Namibia’s chief electoral officer, Theo Mujoro, says the incident during the Oshakati East constituency by-election in which a woman voted twice has nothing to do with whether the electronic voting machines can be manipulated.
Mujoro said the incident was simply a human error by electoral officials, and had nothing to do with the legitimacy of the electronic voting machines (EVMs).
reported this weekend on social media that a woman who cast her vote at the Evululuko polling station on Saturday entered a vote twice on an EVM while being assisted by an election official.
She was allegedly allowed to vote for the second time because she was unsure whether her first vote had gone through when she did not hear the beeping sound of the machine.
understands that the incident was reported to the ECN and the police by electoral officials.
Mujoro, although stating that the incident was unacceptable, said it should not bring the credibility of the elections into disrepute.
“I don’t have the details of that incident. But I don’t think it has anything to do with the robustness of the EVMs. It is just a human failure, something that has to do with training of the ballot issuer. It is almost unthinkable that it happened in the presence of the observers, [the police, political party officials and ECN],” Mujoro added.
He said he will investigate the matter when he receives the report of the returning officer, Ephraim Iiyambo.
Iyambo told that the ECN has not opened a case against the suspect as the electoral body could not determine the possibility of voter fraud. He added that those votes were included in the count as “there was no way of identifying them”.
“There is no case, and we have agreed that what is done is done. The electoral voting machines do not have paper trails, and in that case you cannot trace who she voted for. Whoever she voted for twice, it’s their luck. It’s not a big issue for people to be going on about, it’s nothing serious. There is nothing that the ECN can do in this regard,” he said.
A total of 18 000 voters were registered to vote in the Oshakati East constituency by-election, but only 3 400 voted. More than 14 000 people did not participate in the elections.
The by-election was necessitated by the death of former Swapo councillor Lotto Kuushomwa who had been at the helm for a number of years.
Swapo candidate Abner Shikongo emerged as an outright winner by garnering 2 935 votes, while independent candidate Fiina Kuutondokwa came second with a total of 234 votes, and Kamati Theofelus of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) scooped the third position with 185 votes.
Despite the by-election controversy, Mujoro reiterated that the EVMs will be used for the upcoming presidential and National Assembly elections in November this year.
The EVMs were introduced in 2014 to replace paper ballots.
The ECN spent over N$60 million to acquire the machines from India.
Opposition leaders, including Popular Democratic Movement president McHenry Venaani and the RDP’s Mike Kavekotora, have been calling for the introduction of the verifiable paper trail, saying the EVMs could not be trusted because they have no “requisite voter-verifiable paper audit trail”.
The verifiable audit paper trail, the opposition parties believe, will improve the credibility of the elections, and remove allegations about rigging.
The Oshakati by-election incident received nationwide attention, with some opposition leaders suggesting that a case of voter fraud must be laid against the suspect.
LPM deputy leader Henny Seibeb told yesterday that the incident was totally unacceptable.
He stated that the incident was a serious matter, and could bring the credibility of the ECN under the microscope.
“The ECN must act up now before it gets out of hand. The suspect should be held accountable in order to prevent further actions in the future, and serve as a lesson to the general public out there,” added Seibeb.
He said if the ECN fails to hold the suspect accountable, the LPM and other political parties will be left with no other option but to take the ECN to court for voter fraud.
Seibeb noted with concern the continued use of EVMs, saying the ECN should do away with them as they can easily be manipulated.
Dudu Murorua of the United Democratic Front said the ECN is to blame for a failure to prosecute the suspect and the electoral officials at that polling station.
“It is highly impossible for one to vote twice. How come the electoral officials only noticed the issue after her second vote? The ECN must know that voter fraud incidents lie with them, which also implies that voters can vote as many times as they wish without being held accountable. However, this whole ordeal should serve as an eye-opener to all political parties in the future,” he observed.
