IPC, LPM withdraw poll case in Electoral Court

The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) and Landless People’s Movement (LPM) are withdrawing their legal challenge of the outcome of Namibia’s 2024 National Assembly election.

Lawyers representing the two parties informed the Electoral Court of the withdrawal of their legal action on Tuesday, after a similar challenge about the 2024 presidential election was dismissed by the Supreme Court on Friday last week.

The court was also informed that the two parties and the respondents who opposed their legal challenge of the National Assembly election – the Electoral Commission of Namibia, president Nangolo Mbumba and Swapo – would each bear their own legal costs in the matter.

The Electoral Court on 20 January ordered that the IPC’s challenge about the conduct of the National Assembly election be kept on hold until the Supreme Court delivered its judgement on a similar challenge about the presidential election.

A month later, on 20 February, judges Hannelie Prinsloo, Orben Sibeya and Esi Schimming-Chase allowed the LPM to join the IPC as a co-applicant in the case that the IPC filed in December last year.

The three judges also postponed the matter to today, when a status hearing is scheduled to take place before them.

The IPC and LPM have both been claiming that president Nangolo Mbumba did not have the power to extend the National Assembly and presidential elections beyond 27 November last year, which was initially proclaimed as the only election day. The IPC also claimed the elections had been marked by irregularities, but did not persist with that claim in IPC leader and presidential candidate Panduleni Itula’s unsuccessful challenge of the presidential election in the Supreme Court.

Mbumba extended the elections to 29 and 30 November on a recommendation of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), after the ECN was informed that a shortage of ballot papers and problems with voter verification equipment at some polling stations resulted in voters being unable to take part in the elections.

The president’s power to issue a proclamation to extend the elections was also a crucial issue in the presidential election challenge decided by the Supreme Court on Friday.

The court concluded that Mbumba had the power to extend the voting period at ballot stations where a shortage of ballot papers and problems with voter verification equipment were experienced.

The five judges who dismissed the presidential election challenge of Itula and LPM leader Bernadus Swartbooi in a unanimous decision stated that the extension of the voting period was not shown to have prejudiced any potential voter or the presidential candidates.

The judges said the purpose of the extension was to make it possible for voters who were unable to take part in the elections due to a shortage of ballot papers and other difficulties at some polling stations to participate in the polls.

The court also noted that delays experienced at numerous polling stations during voting on 27 November last year were the result of the legal framework in the Electoral Act.

The act permits a registered voter in the presidential and National Assembly elections to vote at any polling station, and not necessarily at a polling station in the constituency where the voter is registered. This made it practically impossible for the ECN to have known in advance how many voters would have turned up at a particular polling station on 27 November and to distribute ballot papers in such a way that there would have been enough of them at each polling station, the court stated.

Swapo won 51 of the 96 elected seats in the National Assembly in the election, while the IPC won 20 seats and the LPM won five seats. If votes cast on 29 and 30 November were to be excluded, Swapo would be allocated one more seat in the National Assembly and the IPC would get 19 seats, according to the ECN.

In an age of information overload, Sunrise is The Namibian’s morning briefing, delivered at 6h00 from Monday to Friday. It offers a curated rundown of the most important stories from the past 24 hours – occasionally with a light, witty touch. It’s an essential way to stay informed. Subscribe and join our newsletter community.