Govt will accept ruling in election case

GOVERNMENT will accept the outcome of the pending court case about the November 2009 election results, which had been launched by nine opposition parties, President Pohamba said on Friday.

‘We have discussed this matter and President Pohamba assured me that whatever the ruling will be, it will be accepted by the Namibian Government,’ said Dirk Niebel, visiting German Economic Cooperation Minister.Niebel ended his three-day visit to Namibia on Friday. On Friday afternoon, he held talks which lasted for over an hour with President Pohamba at State House.Speaking to reporters afterwards, Niebel said that both Pohamba and the Speaker of Parliament, Theo-Ben Gurirab, had assured him that the High Court ruling would be accepted. ‘In a democracy such a legal challenge is a democratic way and Namibia has since Independence 20 years ago put all these democratic systems in place, among them an independent judiciary,’ Niebel said.’President Pohamba assured me that Namibia values the rule of law and an independent judiciary and that the judgment in the pending case would be taken seriously by Government.’ The case is set down for March 1 and 2. Nine opposition parties had obtained a High Court order just before Christmas to go through election materials – except the ballot papers – to look for irregularities. On January 4, the opposition parties again turned to the High Court alleging they had found sufficient proof to challenge the results of both the presidential and the National Assembly elections. Initially they only contested the results of the National Assembly elections.