IPC asks courts to declare election results invalid

The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has filed two court cases in which the party is asking that the results of Namibia’s presidential and National Assembly elections near the end of November be declared invalid and set aside.

The party is asking the Supreme Court to set aside the result of the presidential election, which was won by Swapo candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah with 58% of votes counted, and to order that a new presidential election be held.

The IPC is also asking the Electoral Court to set aside the result of the National Assembly election, in which Swapo won 51 of the 96 elected seats in the assembly and the IPC won 20 seats.

The party is also asking the courts to declare that the proclamation in which voting in Windhoek and in some constituencies in the Kunene, Oshana and Oshikoto constituencies was extended for two days violated the Constitution and a part of the Electoral Act.

In a sworn statement filed at the Supreme Court, IPC president Panduleni Itula alleges: “The return and outcome of the impugned election are replete with grave illegalities of the worst kind, and in fact amounted to a disenfranchisement of eligible voters.”

Itula also alleges that people who were not entitled to vote were allowed to cast ballots in the presidential election.

He alleges that after voting started at 07h00 on 27 November – the only day initially proclaimed as voting day – neither the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) nor president Nangolo Mbumba had the power to extend the voting time.

Mbumba’s proclamation that extended voting by two days in some constituencies contravened parts of the Electoral Act and the Constitution, and those two days of continued voting did not facilitate broad public participation in the elections, Itula claims.

During voting on 27 November, problems with equipment used to verify the registration of voters resulted in inordinate delays, with some voters not being able to make their choice at the ballot boxes, Itula claims.

“What happened on 27 November 2024 between the hours 07h00 and 21h00 was a suppression of the voting public’s right to vote in a manner that is free, fair, credible and in compliance with the law,” Itula alleges in his affidavit.

The IPC is citing the president, the ECN, the attorney general, the presidential candidates of other parties and all of the other parties that participated in the National Assembly election as respondents in the two cases, which IPC lawyer Dirk Conradie filed on Monday.

The respondents have been given five days after the court documents were served on them to notify the court whether they will be opposing the IPC’s respective applications.