Opposition parties petition Supreme Court for verdict

OPPOSITION parties contesting the 2009 National Assembly election result in an application to the Supreme Court, demanded that the court deliver a verdict on the matter within 30 days.

Failing this, the parties said, they have no other option but to ‘explore other democratic avenues to get justice’. Two-and-a-half years have passed since the parties first lodged an application with the High Court in January 4,2010, an application that was thrown out of that court on a technicality. They have appealed to the Supreme Court in October last year. On Saturday morning, about 250 opposition party members and their supporters marched through the streets of Windhoek with placards calling for prompt justice in the case, and declaring that Namibia is not Zimbabwe which was stuck in a political quagmire after its last presidential and general election, and demanding that the Electoral Commission of Namibia ‘give back their votes’. The parties – the All People’s Party (APP), Congress of Democrats (CoD), Democratic Party of Namibia (DPN), DTA, Nudo, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), Republican Party (RP), and UDF – are supported by seven NGOs. Despite having made a direct request to the Supreme Court that someone receive their petition, there was no-one to meet them on Saturday morning. The parties nonetheless waved their flags and banners at the footsteps of the court, and read out their petition before heading off to a fundraising event where they were going to continue their discussions on their next move. Parties want a verdict on their urgent application, demanding that Supreme Court Chief Justice Peter Shivute does everything in his power to ensure that the verdict is made public ‘as a matter of urgency in order to ease public anxiety’. ‘[We] feel strongly that justice is being denied to the people of Namibia,’ the parties said. ‘While the verdict is withheld, the current Parliament continues to pass laws and disburse taxpayers’ money at the risk that the lawmakers might not be legitimate,’ the parties continued. Chief Justice Shivute last week said the verdict was under preparation and that the parties and the general public would be informed of the date of its delivery. He said when judgement was reserved after the conclusions of the arguments in October 2011, the Supreme Court had indicated that its judges would only begin to consider their judgement after the end of the court’s October/November 2011 session. Since then, Shivute said, the judges held deliberate meetings in November 2011, did research and commenced with the preparation of the judgement in December. Shivute did add, however, that a delay in the judgement was unavoidable due to preparatory work of the March/April session of the court. Compounding the issue, Shivute had said, was that the opposition’s appeal contains 25 volumes, or more than 3 000 pages, and that the election challenge was launched on a broad basis raising numerous intricate legal and constitutional issues that need careful consideration by the presiding five judges.