Concerns over fair elections after Shaningwa attends ECN meeting

The Affirmative Repositioning and the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters have criticised the government after a meeting with the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) at State House yesterday.

The meeting was attended by president Nangolo Mbumba and Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa.

The parties say they are concerned over the ECN’s ability to remain impartial, given Shaningwa’s presence at the meeting.

The AR after the meeting said the party “painfully saw how ECN commissioners and officials swallowed Swapo’s secretary general’s interrogation and seemingly buckled under pressure from one participant in an election which the ECN will administer and pretend to be neutral”.

The NEFF, on the other hand, said: “The presence of Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa at a closed-door meeting . . . demonstrates that the ECN’s ability to remain impartial is at its lowest.”

Shaningwa on Wednesday responded to this, saying the parties should appreciate that the government and Swapo are telling the ECN to improve its performance.

“They must just appreciate that the top leaders of the government plus the top administrator of the ruling Swapo party, in whose hands the governance of this country is entrusted, engaged the ECN to pull up their socks,” she said.

The president summoned the commission to State House over concerns about the slow rate of voters’ registration thus far.

Shaningwa yesterday questioned the ECN’s efforts on registration issues at Khorixas and Outjo, among others.