Mbumba signs law allowing public servants to run for office

President Nangolo Mbumba has signed a law allowing government employees to run for political office.

The new Electoral Amendment Act of 2024 requires that public service employees nominated as candidates to be elected to the National Assembly have to take leave once listed as a candidate and resign from the public service if they are elected.

This was announced in a notice issued by parliament on Wednesday.

The signed Electoral Amendment Act clarifies the rules for public servants running for the National Assembly.

Under the amendment, government employees can now be nominated by their respective political parties as candidates for the National Assembly.

The amendment act states that it changes the Electoral Act of 2014 “to provide for the remunerated members of the public service and members of the National Council, regional councils and local authority councils […] to be eligible for nomination as candidates for National Assembly election; to authorise the remunerated members of the public service to utilise their leave days in order to participate and be elected as members of the National Assembly”.

The amendment act also states that it provides “for the remunerated members of the public service and members of the National Council, regional councils and local authority councils who fail or refuse to resign after taking up seats at the National Assembly to be deemed to have resigned”.

This does not apply to members of the military, police, intelligence or correctional services, who are not allowed to run for the National Assembly under limits set in Namibia’s Constitution.