Amupanda's court bid seeks to lift veil on ECN appointments

Affirmative Repositioning (AR) leader Job Amupanda has turned to the High Court in a bid to compel greater transparency in the appointment of Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) commissioners.

Amupanda argues that MPs should not be expected to approve presidential nominees without access to the records underpinning their selection.

While the application does not ask the court to determine the suitability of individual nominees, it notes that parliament cannot meaningfully assess them without first examining the process that led to their nomination.

In an urgent application filed and heard in court yesterday, Amupanda is seeking to stop the National Assembly from voting on President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah's nominees for ECN chairperson and two commissioner posts until parliament is furnished with the documents that informed the appointments.

At the heart of the application is what Amupanda describes as a constitutional imperative for openness and accountability in the appointment of officials who will oversee Namibia's elections.

"The purpose of this urgent application is to obtain immediate interdictory relief... until such records are fully disclosed and members are afforded a reasonable opportunity to study them," the founding affidavit states.

Amupanda argues that parliament's constitutional responsibility to approve ECN appointments cannot be reduced to a ceremonial exercise in which MPs simply endorse names submitted by the president.

Instead, he says lawmakers must be able to scrutinise the process that produced the nominees, including whether the law was followed and whether the successful candidates emerged from a fair and transparent selection process.

He is demanding access to the selection committee's interview records, score sheets, minutes, recommendations to the president and the president's recommendation to parliament.

Futile requests

The affidavit states that these documents are essential for MPs to determine whether the nominees satisfy the requirements of the Electoral Act and whether the president exercised her powers lawfully.

Amupanda says he repeatedly requested the documents from the Speaker of the National Assembly and the secretary to parliament, both in writing and during parliamentary proceedings, but was unsuccessful.

He argues that withholding the records deprives MPs of the information necessary to fulfil their constitutional oversight responsibilities under Articles 45 and 94B of the Constitution.

The application contends that transparency in appointments to constitutional bodies such as the ECN is fundamental because the commission is responsible for administering elections and safeguarding the integrity of Namibia's democratic processes.

Denying parliament access to the records creates the impression that MPs are expected to approve appointments on trust rather than evidence, Amupanda says.

More time

The application also alleges that the limited information eventually released raises further questions deserving parliamentary scrutiny.

Among them is an apparent discrepancy over who chaired the statutory selection committee. The affidavit claims the president's nomination letter identifies a different chairperson from the one prescribed by the Electoral Act.

Amupanda further questions why one of the appointments appears to be for a term shorter than the five years contemplated by the Act.

The urgent application follows Wednesday's aborted attempt by the National Assembly to consider the appointments. Opposition MPs objected to proceeding without access to the supporting documents, while the House later failed to attain the constitutional quorum required to continue with the vote.

Amupanda now wants the High Court to interdict parliament from considering the appointments until the records are disclosed and MPs are given sufficient time to study them.