More voter roll discrepancies

ABOUT 132 Namibians who are below the voting age of 18 years have registered as voters and received their cards while some 103 voters registered twice and 12 voters, among them Tobie Aupindi, Managing Director of Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR), registered after the cut-off date, which was September 30.

Copies of these discrepancies were apparently leaked to the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR), which presented a voluminous file to reporters yesterday with ‘smoking-gun’ evidence, as Steven Mvula, the NSHR media relations officer, described it. Copies of virtually all the voter application forms of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), resulting in voters obtaining duplicate voter cards and thus having two voter registration numbers, are in the file. Duplications occurred in 11 of Namibia’s 13 regions. There is also a case at Outjo where the same voter registration number was given to two different people. According to NSHR Executive Director Phil ya Nangoloh, a well-known Swapo activist, Sion Iikela, and his wife apparently registered twice in September this year – once at Elim and shortly afterwards he registered again at Swakopmund and his wife at Arandis. The Namibian has seen the two different voter registration numbers of the couple.Ya Nangoloh also again criticised the ECN for having deceased voters on the roll such as Chris Ulenga, the brother of CoD president Ben Ulenga, who died a few years back. The late Chief Hendrik Witbooi is also on the roll. He died last month. ECN Commissioner Shafimana Ueitele told The Namibian on Wednesday that the ECN, which relies on the Home Affairs Ministry for data of deceased people, could not remove those who died in September and October from the voters’ roll. During last month, ECN Director of Elections Moses Ndjarakana signed 12 internal memos directed to the ECN chief data typist to issue 12 duplicate voter cards to people who had lost their cards, according to sworn affidavits made at Police stations. NWR boss Tobie Aupindi was one of them. According to copies of ECN records from September 17, 12h00 until October 14 at 12h00, 132 young Namibians below the age of 18 were registered in almost all 107 constituencies. Some were as young as 11 and 12 years old, born in 1997 and 1998. A quick glance at the final voters’ roll released by the ECN on November 14 showed that their names had been struck from the roll in the meantime.’We are deeply concerned that the upcoming voting process might not be free and fair as there are gross discrepancies on the voters’ roll,’ said Ya Nangoloh. ‘Either this is due to gross negligence at the ECN or done deliberately,’ he criticised. According to him, the sloppy voter’s roll could possibly result in urgent legal actions against the ECN.He was also concerned that there were 172 mobile polling stations marked for the Omusati Region against 146 fixed polling stations. ‘For the 2004 elections there were far fewer mobile polling stations, so we wonder why this time.’ Ya Nangoloh also called for an independent audit fo the voters roll.RDP president Hidipo Hamutenya late yesterday called on the ECN to clean up the voters’ roll before elections start next week Friday.Hamutenya said: ‘We will consider actions on these discrepancies and will meet with other political parties to consult on next steps.’