Opposition parties plan to reject outcome of Namibia’s elections and head to court

Namibia’s presidential and National Assembly elections are shaping up to be the country’s most controversial and contentious elections to date. Political parties and leaders have shared their concerns that the elections were not “free and fair”.

While these elections elicited criticism from various stakeholders, they were not Namibia’s first elections to be challenged in court.

Panduleni Itula, then an independent candidate, challenged Namibia’s 2019 elections in the country’s Supreme Court. This was on the basis that the electronic voting machines (EVMs) that were used for the elections “had no paper trail” and thus results could not be verified.

In February 2020, the court ruled that the use of EVMs without a proper paper trail was unconstitutional, but it did not overturn the election result.

Itula went on to establish the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) in late 2020.

In the 2019 elections, Itula gained the highest vote of any candidate opposing Swapo, with 29.37%. Swapo’s candidate, the country’s late president Hage Geingob, secured only 56.25% of the vote, compared to the 86.73% he won in 2014.

According to Henning Melber, an extraordinary professor of political science at the University of Pretoria, Itula secured a large following because people voted for him over Swapo’s candidate in protest.

Swapo has been in power since Namibia gained independence in 1990, but faces increased opposition due to poor service delivery and growing dissatisfaction from the country’s young people.

Read more: Namibian elections ahead — here’s what you need to know

Parties unite behind IPC

Itula and the IPC will again take the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to court over its poor conduct in this year’s elections. The IPC has written a letter to the ECN, informing it of the party’s intent to submit an urgent application to the Supreme Court to challenge its handling of the elections.

The IPC argues that the ECN’s handling of the elections resulted in voter suppression, due to missing ballot books and technical failures, which caused overly long queues.

Read more: Namibia’s election chaos: Technical failures and ballot shortages spark outrage among voters and parties

After meeting on Sunday, multiple opposition parties rallied behind the IPC.

“The decision was that we are going to litigate the results in court for them to set the results aside. The IPC started the litigation process and we will stand behind them,” said the secretary-general of the Popular Democratic Movement, Manuel Ngaringombe.

Parties who typically find themselves ideologically opposed to each other, like the conservative Republican Party (RP) and the left-wing Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF), also supported the IPC’s legal action.

“We are united, which I think is extremely important. I said earlier today that I think this legal challenge now is probably one of the most important projects ever done in this country. We cannot allow what happened in this election to happen again,” said Henk Mudge, the leader of the RP. “We are not enemies, we are opponents.”

Theresia Mushaandja, the national spokesperson of the NEFF, shared this sentiment.

“We are saying as the case unfolds and progresses, we shall offer necessary support to make sure the IPC wins for the betterment of all of us,” said Mushaandja.

The meeting was held between almost 10 political parties who threw their weight behind the IPC’s decision to challenge the election.

Speaking after the meeting, Itula called on civil society organisations — including churches, Namibia’s legal fraternity and non-governmental organisations — to stand behind his party’s case, pleading that they should “stand with justice”.

“The whole nation must express their disgust for this desperate attempt to maintain power by those in charge; so we call upon churches, the NGOs and all peace-loving Namibians to stand together with us,” said Itula.

The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) and Affirmative Repositioning (AR), who were absent from the meeting, have also said they will not accept the election results.

Questions over observer mission

During a briefing on Monday, the leader of the AR, Job Amupanda, said his party would not support the results of the election, citing possible rigging and voter exclusion.

Amupanda raised red flags around Swapo’s close relationship with Zimbabwe’s ruling party, Zanu-PF.

His party was not the first to do so; the leader of the LPM has also expressed concerns over Zanu-PF’s involvement in the SADC observer mission.

“The mistrust goes thick, like in a Netflix movie. As far as we are concerned, the elections are already rigged — the interference of Zanu-PF is worrying,” warned Bernadus Swartbooi, the LPM’s leader, before Namibians headed to the polls.

Read more: Opposition leader questions SADC observer mission ahead of crucial Namibian poll

Amupanda was vocal about his fears that Zanu-PF was attempting to interfere in Namibia’s elections, but there has been no tangible evidence to support these claims, aside from social media praise towards Swapo.

“You even have Zanu-PF people celebrating on Facebook and Twitter. Some Swapo people are keeping quiet, but it’s Zanu-PF who are celebrating — why is Zanu-PF celebrating?” asked Amupanda.

George Charamba, the deputy chief of staff and presidential spokesperson in Zimbabwe, celebrated Swapo’s victory in Namibia’s elections, despite ballot counting still being under way.

“Swapo has secured another five-year mandate resoundingly, putting to bed the Brenthurst quislings. Unity in liberation parties is key to defeating imperialism” said Charamba.

Amupanda said he feared that Zanu-PF was integrating itself into Namibia’s intelligence agency and civil society.

He has also made numerous social media posts labelling Swapo and the ECN as “Swapo-PF” and “ECN-PF”.

Priscilla Makanyara Chigumba, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) and the head of the Electoral Commissions Forum of SADC Countries, previously told Daily Maverick that people’s perceptions of Zimbabwe and Zanu-PF had nothing to do with the work of the SADC observer mission.

Ephraim Nekongo, the Swapo Youth League (Swapo-YL) secretary-general and a member of Parliament, said Amupanda’s accusations were “unfounded”.

Nekongo said the Swapo-YL was disappointed in the ECN’s conduct during the election — specifically pertaining to the lack of ballot papers — but that his party would not join those who were challenging the results of the elections.

“We are confident and trust the authority that is responsible for the election,” said Nekongo.

Legal practitioners have called into question the ECN’s decision to extend the elections from 27 November until 3o November.

Lawyer Henry Shimutwikeni that the ECN’s decision to extend the elections was a very “mischievous interpretation” of Namibia’s Electoral Act.

Read more: Extension for Namibia’s election is a ‘very mischievous interpretation of the act’

However, speaking to the press on Sunday night, the ECN argued that the amendment of the president’s initial proclamation and the extension of the elections were within the bounds of the Electoral Act, because the president had not issued a new proclamation. According to the ECN, Namibia’s president merely amended the previous one.

Swapo in the lead

Despite the backlash, results of Namibia’s presidential and National Assembly elections were slowly trickling in, but the ECN has not confirmed when the final results will be declared.

As of writing this article, the latest results indicated that Swapo was leading the elections, with 56.29% of the vote in the National Assembly, and 54.19% in the presidential ballot.

The IPC’s Itula was the second-most popular candidate with 27.61% of the vote, while his party had 18.01%.

It was estimated that about half of the votes for the presidential ballot and about a quarter of the votes for the parliamentary ballot had been counted. DM