Staff Reporter
THREE High Court judges in the Electoral Court have handed down a court order enabling the Independent Patriots of Change and Landless People’s Movement party to inspect electoral material on 18th and 19th December 2024.
The High Court judges, Nate Ndauendapo, Orben Sibeya, and Beatrix de Jagger, ordered that the parties can gain access to election information, provided that nothing in the sealed packet contemplated in the Act is opened.
Whatever the parties are copying or inspecting will exclude the sealed electoral material.
“The applicant understands that in the information requested, the first and second respondents, namely the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia and Chief Electoral Officer as the executive officer of the ECN, would not have to break any seal of electoral material. The two respondents would not have to unseal any documents referred to in the Electoral Act. The information we are requesting is information on polling stations, the votes cast, and the spoiled ballots,” Mercy Ujandjua Kuzeeko, LPM lawyer, said.
The lawyer representing the ECN in the matter, Gerson /Narib, clarified that, to his understanding, the applicants are looking for statistics regarding the National Assembly elections of 2024.
In the order, the judge read that the application was heard as a matter of urgency and that the parties be granted access to information on 27th November 2024, even after they had cast their votes after midnight regarding the National Assembly elections. This includes the total number of votes cast, the total number of votes rejected, the total number of spoiled ballots, the total number of voters who voted outside their constituencies, and the total number of votes counted. The information to be provided per the judge’s orders should also include data from 29th and 30th December.
