Top SA advocates lead Namibian elections fight

Two SA advocates are among the legal minds leading the fight by Namibian opposition parties in their challenge of the country's November elections, says a News24 report. After issues at polling stations, including a shortage of ballot papers, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) recommended to President Nangolo Mbumba to extend the elections at some voting stations to 29 and 30 November. Mbumba extended the election to 30 November. Swapo, which has governed Namibia since its independence from apartheid SA in 1990, obtained 51 of the 96 seats in the Namibian National Assembly. The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) won 20 seats and the Landless People's Movement (LPM) five. Swapo's Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was elected President. Subsequently, the IPC – whose lead counsel is SA Advocate Anton Katz SC – launched two applications challenging the presidential election in the Supreme Court and the parliamentary election in the Electoral Court. ‘The President and the ECN grossly violated both the Constitution and the Act in the conduct of the impugned election, and disenfranchised eligible voters,’ stated IPC national chairperson Christine Esperanza Auchamus in her founding affidavit in their challenge in the Electoral Court. ‘The President retrospectively and unlawfully extended the voting period ... in violation of Article 46(2) of the Constitution, and in contravention of section 64(3)(b) of the Electoral Act,’ she claimed. ‘The ECN conducted the elections in a constitutionally offensive manner, and the President usurped the powers of the ECN in retrospective amendments to the time for taking the poll. IPC leader Panduleni Itula, who deposed an affidavit to their application to the Supreme Court, raised similar arguments.

Mbumba and Swapo in their responding affidavits charged the IPC's applications were defective, according to the News24 report. ‘Article 32(1) of the Namibia Constitution gives me the power to extend the voting period,’ stated Mbumba. He added he received a recommendation from the ECN to extend the voting period. Meanwhile, the LPM applied to the courts to be admitted as an applicant. The LPM's lead counsel is SA Advocate Kameel Premhid. While the IPC wants the whole election set aside, the LPM only wants the outcomes of the voting extension set aside, unless it impossible to separate the results from 27 November, in which case it wants a new election.

Full News24 report