Supreme Court upholds presidential poll result
05 February 2020 | Justice
JEMIMA BEUKES
The Supreme Court has ruled it will not nullify the result and order a rerun of the 2019 presidential election, which means that Hage Geingob will now serve a second term as head of state.
Chief Justice Peter Shivute, while ruling that the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) without a paper trail, as decided upon by the line minister before the 2014 general election, was invalid, the applicants had not proven manipulation of the machines that could have affected the poll result.
They had also not shown that the absence of a verifiable trail impacted on their right to vote. Shivute also found that the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) proceeded with the 2019 election without using a verifiable paper trail for its EVMs on the basis that it believed it was legal to do so, following a 2014 court ruling on the matter.
The Supreme Court has ruled it will not nullify the result and order a rerun of the 2019 presidential election, which means that Hage Geingob will now serve a second term as head of state.
Chief Justice Peter Shivute, while ruling that the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) without a paper trail, as decided upon by the line minister before the 2014 general election, was invalid, the applicants had not proven manipulation of the machines that could have affected the poll result.
They had also not shown that the absence of a verifiable trail impacted on their right to vote. Shivute also found that the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) proceeded with the 2019 election without using a verifiable paper trail for its EVMs on the basis that it believed it was legal to do so, following a 2014 court ruling on the matter.
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