A faction of the Christian Democratic Voice Party (CDV) has failed with an attempt to compel the Electoral Commission of Namibia to accept its list of candidates for the National Assembly election.
The attempt failed when an application by a faction of the party, led by Viola Geirises, was struck off the Windhoek High Court’s roll yesterday.
Acting judge Kobus Miller struck the matter off the roll after noting that most of the 37 respondents in the application were not formally notified of the case.
Miller also said since the application is about the CDV’s list of candidates in the National Assembly election on 27 November, it is an electoral matter that should be dealt with by the Electoral Court, rather than the High Court.
Geirises asked the court to review and set aside a decision of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to accept a candidate list for the National Assembly election that CDV president Gotthard Kandume submitted to the ECN three weeks ago.
She also wanted the ECN to be ordered to accept a candidate list that her faction of the party submitted to the commission.
In a sworn statement filed at the court, Geirises claims the CDV elected a new leadership, including a new national executive committee, at a special congress on 12 October and chose candidates to represent the party in the National Assembly election.
She also claims that a special congress of the party decided to recall Kandume from the National Assembly, where he is occupying the party’s sole seat, and decided that she will act as party president in Kandume’s place.
The ECN accepted a list of CDV candidates for the National Assembly that was submitted by Kandume, and refused to accept a list of candidates submitted by another alleged representative of the party, Usakos resident Hans Stramiss, on 15 October.
Geirises says the ECN refused to accept the list of candidates submitted by Stramiss because he is not on the commission’s records as the authorised representative of the CDV.
The ECN persisted with this stance after it was informed on 15 October that Stramiss is the CDV’s new authorised representative, Geirises says.
According to Kandume, though, Geirises resigned as a member of the CDV in July, after the ECN cancelled the CDV’s registration as a political party in June, and she is no longer the party’s vice president.
He also disputes that the CDV held a special congress in terms of its constitution in October.
The ECN’s chief electoral officer, Petrus Shaama, also informed the court in an affidavit that according to the ECN, Kandume is the authorised representative of the CDV and the commission has not received any proper notification that the party’s authorised representative was changed.
As a result, the ECN could not accept a list of candidates that Geirises and Stramiss tried to submit on 15 October, Shaama says.
The ECN asked the High Court nearly four weeks ago to set aside its decision to deregister the CDV, after the court ruled in September that the commission acted incorrectly when it decided to also cancel the registration of another political party, the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF), without giving the NEFF an opportunity to be heard before that decision was made.
The CDV won a single seat in the National Assembly in the parliamentary election in November 2019.
Legal counsel Thomas Kasita, instructed by Moses Ikanga, represented the CDV faction led by Geirises during the hearing before Milller yesterday.
Kadhila Amoomo represented Kandume, while government lawyer Cynthia Endjambi represented the ECN.
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