by Nurat Uthman
Namibia’s main opposition party filed papers with the electoral court on Monday demanding access to tallies for all ballots cast and counted in last month’s vote, as the results will likely be legally challenged.
The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has already said it would not recognize the results of the election that was controversially extended twice, after logistical and technical problems meant some people did not vote on November 27.
“There were clearly irregularities in the election,” the IPC said in the application asking the court to oblige the election authority to provide tallies of votes cast and counted on all four days of the vote.
It needed this information to determine the extent of the irregularities and so “consider whether to launch proceedings concerning the validity of the elections”, it said.
The SWAPO party that has governed the desert nation since its independence 34 years ago was declared winner with its presidential candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, given 57 percent of ballots compared to 25.5 percent for the IPC’s Panduleni Itula.
The election authority admitted to an array of problems on the first day of the vote. A shortage of ballot papers and malfunctioning electronic tablets led to long delays and queues of up to 12 hours, which some voters abandoned.
The IPC has alleged this was a deliberate attempt to suppress ballots by frustrating voters
