LPM wants extended election results nullified

• MARTIN ENDJALA

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi says he and his party want the Supreme Court to nullify the results of the extension of Namibia’s presidential and National Assembly elections in November last year.

Three additional voting days were gazetted by president Nangolo Mbumba after concerns about delays and technical challenges were raised during the election period last year.

The LPM does not recognise the results that came from the extended election period from 28 to 30 November.
The party wants the court to only validate the results of the 27 November elections.

Both LPM and the Independent Patriots for Change have approached the Electoral Court, challenging the results and labelling them as unlawful.

“Our argument in the court is not on the numbers or how many polling stations were closed.

What we are saying is that, if we cannot disaggregate the 27 November 2024 results from the unlawful extension by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and president Nangolo Mbumba, then the whole process must be declared null and void,” Swartbooi says.

He says the results of 27 November 2024 must be separated from the other dates on 28, 29 and 30 November.

Swartbooi says whether or not Proclamation 34 is legal, the outcome of the results would be different.

The argument of ‘Swapo would still win, so why go to court’, he says, is very dangerous.

He says this implies that any unlawful action that benefits Swapo, even if it has unlawful consequences, should be allowed to stand.
“Such arguments mean that Namibia can run any elections in an unlawful manner as long as Swapo wins,” he says.

Swartbooi says even if the court agrees with LPM and declares Proclamation 34 illegal, the party will remain concerned.

He says this is because the principles of the Constitution are being tarnished.

Meanwhile, LPM election observer Ivan Skrywer says they have found some irregularities in the voting, citing a duplication of voters’ names appearing on the elect 27 papers, a form used when the system goes off which allows voters to vote unhindered.

“What happened during the elections was that, instead of transporting ballot papers, ECN was transporting elect 27 papers in a pile of boxes.

There is no way the ECN would be so ready and efficient at that specific moment when they realised the tablets are freezing and the system is going off, that they could have printed so many elect 27 papers.

There is no way,” Skrywer says.

He believes this was a pre-planned move, citing that when they did inspections at the ECN, they were met with boxes of elect 27 papers, a situation that, he says, raised eyebrows.