NEFF dodged us – ECN

… Amushelelo says party failed to account for public funds

Namibia’s electoral commission says it has been begging the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) for its financial statements since 2021.

The NEFF was deregistered by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) due to the party not submitting financial statements as required by law.

ECN senior legal officer Alfeus Haufiku yesterday told Desert Radio it started requesting the EFF’s financial statements in 2021, and has had multiple talks with the party since.

NEFF deputy leader Longinus Iipumbu, however, maintains that the party will fight the electoral authority’s decision to deregister it.

Haufiku yesterday said the ECN gave the NEFF a deadline in 2022, set for March of that year.

“They were complaining that they could not meet the deadline because they needed more information, that this was a new act, and so forth. We said fine, let’s have a meeting,” he said.

During this meeting, Haufiku said, the ECN explained the Electoral Act to the parties which had queries.

“And then the deadline was extended for them to submit audited financial statements from 2020 to 2021 and 2022. Again, some submitted, some not,” he said.

To further assist, the ECN said it had a workshop in September 2022.

“We decided we had to apply Section 152 [of the act], that is the cancellation of the registration certificate of respective political parties that are not compliant,” Haufiku said.

The next step was to have a one-on-one with the relevant parties, he said.

“We wanted to hear what is your problem . . . That was now June 2023,” Haufiku said.

After that, the ECN was met with silence, he said.

“From June, we haven’t again heard anything from this political party. I personally kept calling them . . . no, we are coming, no, we are doing something, no . . . “So that led the commission to issue the ultimate letter dated 25 April, giving the two political parties 14 days to submit those outstanding documents from 2020 to 2023,” he said.

In letters seen by The Namibian, the ECN received the NEFF’s 2020/21 and 2021/22 audited financial statements by 4 June.

The outstanding years were 2022/2023 and 2023/2024.

The NEFF has argued that its deregistration was unfair, because the ECN did not adhere to the extension granted the party to submit its financial statements.

NEFF deputy leader Longinus Iipumbu yesterday said: “We believe every Namibian has seen how unfair the NEFF was treated. We are heading to court as the decision by the ECN is undermining the democratic principles and processes in this country.”

Subsequently, the NEFF’s economic development commissar, Michael Amushelelo, left the party.

RESIGNED

“Regarding Amushelelo’s resignation: We are not shocked at all, neither will this affect the party as he joined an organisation which had been standing. It’s his right,” Iipumbu said.

Amushelelo yesterday told Desert Radio he was disappointed by the party’s failure to submit its financial statements.

“I mean, it is not so complex to get someone to maintain and look at your books. For us to be deregistered over that is a punch in the face,” he said.

Amushelelo called out the hypocrisy of the party in wanting to take over the government, but not being able to comply with the law.

He said his departure from the party was “on good terms”.

He has not found a new political home yet, Amushelelo said.

OUTSTANDING ACCOUNTABILITY

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah last week said there has to be some accountability in terms of how parties use the money they receive from taxpayers.

“They have to account for that. But the failure to do so has some consequences,” he said.

He questioned how consistent certain requirements are applied to other political parties.

“I haven’t seen any other parties in parliament submitting their financial reports, more in particular the requirement that it must be published in a newspaper. Maybe it happened. I may not have read about it,” he said.

Kamwanyah said the trend shows how such parties would run the government’s affairs.

“It’s not good news that a few months before the presidential and National Assembly elections they found themselves in this predicament. You must always be the best when you are trying to replace the incumbent,” he said.