NEFF loses case against deregistration by ECN

The Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) lost its case against the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) in the Electoral Court on Thursday.

This comes after the ECN deregistered the NEFF as a political party in June.

The court ruled that it does not have the jurisdiction to deal with the NEFF’s application to stop the implementation of a decision to cancel its registration as a political party.

The court dismissed the NEFF’s application.

The ECN disputed that the Electoral Court could deal with the NEFF’s challenge of its decision to cancel its registration as a political party.

A lawyer representing the ECN argued two weeks ago, when the matter was heard before three judges, that the NEFF’s application should have been filed in the High Court, rather than the Electoral Court.

The NEFF, which won two seats in the National Assembly in the November 2019 parliamentary elections, was asking the court to order the ECN not to proceed with the implementation of its decision to cancel the NEFF’s registration as a political party.

The ECN decided to cancel the NEFF’s registration in mid-June because the party failed to lodge copies of its audited annual financial results with the commission as required by the Electoral Act.

Lawyers representing the NEFF labelled the ECN’s decision to cancel the NEFF’s registration as “drastic and probably unprecedented” and as “effectively banning a political party”.

They also argued that the ECN’s decision was premature, that the NEFF was not given an opportunity to be heard before the decision was taken, and that the decision was irrational.

On behalf of the ECN, it was argued that the Electoral Court is a special court established to deal with matters limited to what is set out in the Electoral Act.

The act limits the Electoral Court’s jurisdiction regarding pre-election matters to appeals coming from electoral tribunals, which the NEFF’s application is not, legal counsel Gerson Narib argued.

The party’s application “does not relate to the conduct of an election or to the processes before or after elections, and for this reason does not raise an electoral issue”, according to Narib.

The Electoral Act requires of political parties to submit audited financial statements to the ECN annually, Narib noted in his arguments.

The ECN exchanged several letters with the NEFF about the filing of the party’s outstanding financial statements and warned the NEFF in a letter on 25 April this year that if it did not submit the statements within 14 days the commission would use the section of the Electoral Act that allows it to cancel the NEFF’s registration, Narib said.

The NEFF was represented by lawyer Kadhila Amoomo when oral arguments were heard by the court.

The case was heard by deputy judge president Hosea Angula and judges Orben Sibeya and Beatrix de Jager.