Former first lady and lawyer Monica Geingos says it is undeniable that something went wrong with the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s management of last week’s elections.
She predicts the matter will head to court.
“Whatever happened in the last 24 hours [Wednesday], and we’re not sure what it was, I don’t believe it was sabotage.
I do believe it was capacity issues, and those capacity issues have helped nobody who’s contesting,” she told the South African Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday.
A case that produced a landmark judgement was the challenge to the lawfulness of Namibia’s 2019 presidential election, which was delivered in the Supreme Court.
The judgement indicated that, should the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) want to make use of electronic voting machines, it must ensure they are accompanied by a verifiable paper trail.
“It’s bad for the opposition, it’s bad for the ruling party, because whoever wins, you don’t want a contested win,” she said.
Geingos believes the current discontentment should be addressed in the courts.
“This has to go to the judiciary,” she said.
The former first lady said the courts have seen election challenges during the last four election cycles.
“But the question we need to ask ourselves is: Was it a capacity issue? Was it a people problem, or was it a process problem?
“And if it was a people problem and a lack of capacity, a lack of project management skills, incompetence, the next question we’ll ask ourselves: Who’s going to be held accountable?” Geingos said.
Opposition parties have asked for the resignation of the ECN’s leadership, while the commission has said the opposition should follow the Electoral Act to axe them.
Geingos questioned the behaviour of the commission’s leadership in dealing with the matter.
“How do you handle the tension? What you want to see from leaders, particularly young leaders, is political maturity,” she said.
Geingos believes no rigging took place.
“I understand that in the strongholds of the ruling party there were ballot shortages, people were turned away, long queues of people in the strongholds of the ruling party were turned away.
“So what I assume is that the ruling party is as angry as everybody else about the shortage of ballots and how long people had to stand in queues,” she said.
Geingos wants the commission to be transparent about what went wrong.
“So it doesn’t seem to be an issue of rigging.
It seems to be an issue where the electoral commission needs to communicate clearly to everybody what went wrong.
“Did it affect people’s constitutional rights to cast their votes, was it material enough to affect the outcome?” she asked.
Meanwhile, Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) leader Panduleni Itula says his party will not accept the 2024 election results, even if the IPC wins.
Speaking at a media briefing in Windhoek on Saturday, Itula alleged widespread irregularities during the election process that started on 27 November and was extended to include Friday and Saturday.
Itula accused the ECN of undermining the country’s democracy by failing to uphold the Constitution and electoral laws.
The 2024 presidential and National Assembly elections have been marred by alleged irregularities, including ballot paper shortages, power failures at polling stations and the exclusion of some voters.
“We will not accept the results of these elections, whether they indicate a win for the IPC presidential candidate, victory in parliamentary seats, or even suggest a runoff,” Itula said.
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