Voters’ roll ‘absolutely accurate and correct’, says election body

THE Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has come out strongly against the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) for what it says are attempts by the NSHR to ‘mislead the public’ and to convince international observers that Namibia’s electoral process is subject to rigging.

In a statement issued yesterday, the ECN said that what NSHR’s Executive Director, Phil ya Nangoloh, claimed to be a ‘dossier of gross irregularities’, was nothing else than desperate attempts by his institution to mislead the public.The ECN was responding to a statement made by the NSHR on Thursday, and a subsequent statement issued by the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), using information from the NSHR, that the voters’ roll was severely flawed, that it contained about 132 underage voters, that about 103 voters had registered twice, and that 12 voters had registered after the cut-off date of September 30.According to the NSHR, ‘smoking gun’ evidence of these discrepancies had been leaked to the organisation.But the ECN says the NSHR and RDP are issuing ‘distorted information’, and that the Commission is doing its best to ensure a free and fair election in which only registered voters will be allowed to vote, and only once.Regarding the duplication of voter’s cards, the ECN stated that in terms of the Electoral Act, ‘if a person loses under any circumstances a registration card, the ECN is obliged by law to issue that person with a duplicate provided that that person presents a police affidavit clearly indicating the loss of that card’.The ECN said it was not obliged to investigate the circumstances surrounding the loss of such card, or to limit the number of duplicates issued to a person as a result of losing their voter registration card. In this vein, the Commission gave its assurance that nobody registered for a new voter card after the September 30 deadline, and that only duplicates had been issued.It noted the example of NWR Managing Director Tobie Aupindi – who had been singled out by the NSHR – who it said had been issued a Duplicate Registration Card by the ECN on October 23, and not a new registration card as claimed by the NSHR.The ECN also pointed out the couple Tiofilia and Sioni Iikela – noted by the NSHR to have registered twice in separate towns – registered on September 27 for new cards within the registration period, on the basis of an address change from Elim in the Omusati Region to Arandis in the Erongo Region. They had first received their cards in August 2003.’We can only assure the public that our records indicate that the people referred to in the NSHR statement came for duplicates but not for registration after the deadlines,’ the Commission noted.With regard to the NSHR’s claims that about 132 underage voters had registered, the ECN also refuted these as false. It said even though the NSHR had ‘had all the time to genuinely object to the Register as required by law and to follow the correct procedures,’ it had instead started ‘running a campaign of misinformation and distortion to attract the attention of the international observers in the hope of convincing them that the electoral process is subject to rigging.’The ECN described this action as dishonest, hypocritical and defamatory of those it accuses of getting voter cards illegally.’Given this situation, this institution cannot be trusted as a credible, fair, transparent, honest, objective and non-partisan observer of elections in Namibia,’ the ECN said of the NSHR.In its statement, the ECN also stated that in creating the voter register, all legal provisions had been complied with in terms of preparing the voters’ roll, making it open to public scrutiny, receiving objections, and publishing and gazetting the Roll; and that ‘the printed version of the Register which was gazetted on November 9, 2009 and that has been reported to the political parties and shared with the media reports on numerous occasions, remains absolutely accurate and correct.’With regard to claims that the names of a number of deceased people continue to be reflected on the Voters’ Roll, the ECN said it was unreasonable to demand that the Roll be completely free of the names of those who are deceased.’People continue to die on a daily basis and the process of removing them from the records of Home Affairs is tedious, time-consuming and cumbersome because there are some bureaucratic steps involving notifications, validation and verification that are followed for names to be removed from Government systems.’The ECN also added that while it aspired to have as accurate a roll as possible, ‘We all admit that an absolutely clean and perfect voter register remains a dream that many nations have not been able to attain. While it is a major conventional requirement for keeping abreast with electoral processes, it is not an absolute condition for universal suffrage.’It said that it was for this reason that the ECN has time and again explained that only those in possession of a voter’s card will be eligible to vote, and that a number of mechanisms have been put in place to prevent people from voting twice.’Therefore, the allegation by some opposition leaders that potential discrepancies in the voters’ roll will result in electoral rigging is false, uncalled for, misleading and intentional to subject the electoral process to disrepute,’ the ECN stated. nangula@namibian.com.na