Mbumba, Shaningwa criticised for meeting electoral commission

Experts say the meeting president Nangolo Mbumba and Swapo secretary general Sophia Shaningwa had with the country’s eletoral body shows the two are panicking.

Shaningwa and Mbumba met with the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) at State House on Tuesday.

Political scientist Rui Tyitende yesterday questioned Shaningwa’s presence at the meeting, saying her attendence signals the party’s concern for this year’s election.

“The disastrous results of 2019 and 2020 were a wake up call to their unfettered dominance for the past 34 years,” he said.

“My hunch is that Swapo leadership instructed Mbumba to summon the leadership of ECN as they are worried that the registration of voters in their strongholds, especially their voting cow regions (Kavango East and West) are worryingly low and poses a serious threat,” Tyitende said.

Currently, the Khomas region, where Swapo lost the last elections, has the highest number of registered votes.

Tyitende questioned why the secretary generals of other parties were not present.

He said Mbumba inviting Shangingwa to the meeting to deliberate on matters pertaining to the upcoming elections is “highly suspicious and goes against the spirit of good governance”.

Press secretary Alfredo Hengari defended Shangingwa’s presence at Tuesday’s meeting and Cabinet meetings.

“The Namibian government has a standing practice through which the secretary general of the governing party is invited to the meetings of the Cabinet,” he says.

“President Mbumba raised public matters of concern to all citizens with regard to the registration of voters,” he says.

He says the president didn’t violate any laws in seeking out information about the registration process.

He believes opposition parties are reacting to Shaningwa’s presence because of the election season.

“When issues are raised by the electoral commission, the president has a duty to resolve them to entrench the existing culture of free, fair and credible elections,” he says.

Shaningwa has defended her presence at the meeting by saying political parties should be thankful they questioned the commission.

“They must just appreciate that the top leaders of the government engaged the ECN to pull up their socks and register voters irrespective of which party they belong to,” Shaningwa says.

She says the matters discussed concern her as a member of parliament (MP) and the Cabinet.

The ECN yesterday indicated that they will issue a statement on this in due time.

Popular Democratic Movement leader McHenry Venaani questions why he was not invited as the opposition leader if Shaningwa was invited as an MP.

“Shaningua is not a member of the Cabinet. She sits in Cabinet at the behest of the president like an ex-officio, but she’s not a Cabinet minister, so Hengari is off the mark,” he says.

He says fairness was not portrayed in this regard.

Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) deputy leader Kalimbo Iipumbu says Shaningwa’s presence demonstrates partiality, corruption and a failure of sticking to the principle of fairness.

“While the ECN has a responsibility to engage the executive on matters relating to its work, it cannot be that the same institution, which must be impartial, invites the political administrator of Swapo to closed door meetings,” Iipumbu says.

According to Iipumbu, there is no fairness, especially considering that the NEFF has been deregistered.

Iipumbu says the electoral process must be protected to ensure the voice of the people is heard.

United Democratic Front spokesperson Mabasen Narib called for the safeguarding of the Namibian democracy.

“It is disappointing that Swapo uses their power to dominate the democratic processes,” he says.

Republican Party president Henk Mudge asked what they could have discussed that could not be discussed at the general meeting.

“We thought with a change in the leadership of the ECN, that things will change, but this is worrying,” he says.

“The ruling party continues to express a disregard for transparency and exploits the power presented to them,” said Landless People’s Movement spokesperson Lifalaza Simataa.

In a press statement released yesterday, Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) said Shaningwa is a member of parliament only by virtue of rule 55 of the Swapo Party rules for electing party representatives.

“There is no constitutional provision for the secretary general of the Swapo Party to be a member of cabinet, which seems to be the justification for her inclusion in the Presidential delegation. If anyone was entitled to have been included and or summoned the ECN, it should have been the line Minister, in the Ministry of Urban and Rural Development,” the party said.

According to political analyst Joseph Diescho, the presence of one political party contesting in the elections versus the absence of the other parties renders the ECN partisan.

Diescho says it is inappropriate, and with this sort of conduct, the ECN will lose voters’ trust.

The ECN’s chief electoral and referenda officer, Petrus Shaama, yesterday said by attending the meeting at State House, the commission demonstrated its unwavering dedication to fulfilling its constitutional mandate.

He said the commission can effectively address concerns through constructive engagement with various stakeholders.
“The ECN does not dictate who the president invites to his meetings,” he said.

Shaama said the commission discussed how best to enhance the voter registration rate and adequately resource itself to conduct free, fair and credible elections.