RDP shies away from election court challenge

Despite declaring that last month’s election was not transparent, free, fair and credible, the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) has shied away from a possible court challenge. In 2009, the RDP led eight political parties in a court battle to challenge the outcome of that year’s general election. In last month’s election the RDP lost five of its eight seats, which enabled the DTA to grab the title of official opposition. Yesterday, RDP spokesperson Jeremiah Nambinga said there has been no mention of a court challenge this time around despite warning the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and the government not to mess up future elections. “That was never discussed anywhere but if does come up it will be addressed accordingly,” Nambinga said. In a strongly worded statement this week Nambinga said despite their dedication and commitment, thousands of eligible voters could not cast their votes due to the ECN’s poor preparation and poor management of the election. “The RDP is appealing to ECN and the Swapo Party-led government to ensure that such travesty of law is never repeated in Namibia again because this has the potential to plunge the country into chaos,” he said. “The Namibian election law requires that electronic voting machines (EVMs) must have a verifiable paper trail to allow each and every voter to ascertain that their vote is allocated to a party or a candidate of their choice.” Nambinga added that the absence of a verifiable paper trail has left voters with questions as to whether their votes were recorded. “On this basis alone, the just-ended presidential and National Assembly elections were not transparent, free, fair and credible.” The politician said it was also reported that some EVMs froze during the voting process while some scanners did not function. He said the ECN owes the nation an explanation as to what happened to the data that was captured by the EVMs prior to the breakdowns. He believes that the non-functioning scanners might have opened the door for multiple voting. Nambinga said the RDP had received reports of people voting beyond the gazetted voting day, voters voting multiple times, politicians interfering with the voting process, and failure to post election results at some polling stations. “Moreover, it was said by ECN that the EVMs would make the election process faster than the traditional ballot method. Meaning, only one day was needed for the voting process and results would be announced the next day.” He called this a “fabricated statement” made deliberately to mislead the voters. WINDHOEK ELVIS MURARANGANDA