Court grants IPC, LPM access to ECN voting materials

Following a contentious general election process recently, the Electoral Court on Friday ordered the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to give access to voting materials to two opposition parties, who have cast aspersions on the outcome of the election.The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) and Landless People’s Movement (LPM) both filed separate court applications in which they seek access to voting materials of the presidential and National Assembly elections held in November.Swapo won the parliamentary race with a historically low tally of 53%, followed by IPC at 20% of the vote. In the presidential race, Swapo’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won by 58%, followed by IPC candidate Dr Panduleni Itula at 26%.During Friday's court proceedings, an order was issued for ECN to make available information to the two parties relating to the National Assembly election.These two parties already indicated shortly after the election that they intend to challenge the results.ECN will comply with the court order and has informed IPC and LPM that the access they seek will be granted to them on Wednesday and Thursday this week.On these two days, members of the IPC and LPM will be able to check the information at the ECN's head office in Windhoek in the presence of the Namibian police and ECN officials.The court also ordered that the ECN should invite one person from each political party that participated in the parliamentary election to be present when representatives of IPC and the LPM scrutinise the materials.According to the court order, the information that ECN must provide to IPC include the number of votes cast during the parliamentary election, the number of votes rejected, the number of spoiled ballots, the number of votes cast outside the constituencies where voters voted and the total number of votes counted.The information that will be provided to the LPM includes the number of votes cast, the number of votes rejected, spoiled ballot papers and the total number of votes counted at each polling station in the parliamentary election, as well as the number of voters who voted outside their registered constituencies.However, the court order stipulates that the parties will not be given access to any election material that is sealed in terms of the electoral law.Acting Deputy Judge President Nate Ndauendapo and Judges Orben Sibeya and Beatrix de Jager issued the order.#NamibiaDecides2024– kristien@nmh-hub.com.na

Court grants IPC, LPM access to ECN voting materials

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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Court grants IPC, LPM access to ECN voting materials

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-02

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