Staff Reporter
THE Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia, Elsie Nghikembua, said that all 4,861 polling stations opened and conducted polling successfully, in what she described as a smooth polling process across the country.
Addressing the media in Windhoek last night, Nghikembua said that during Wednesday’s Regional Council and Local Authority Elections, isolated challenges were encountered, such as rainfall in some parts of the country. However, she said that necessary arrangements were made to ensure the safekeeping of election materials and the continuation of polling in the affected areas with minimal disruption.
Other challenges included voters turning up at the wrong polling stations and voters presenting old voter’s cards that are no longer valid.
She said that polling stations closed at 21:00, but all voters who were in the queue at closing time were permitted to cast their votes in strict adherence to the provisions of section 93(3) of the Electoral Act 5 of 2014.
In terms of the Electoral Act, immediately after the close of polls, counting takes place at the same polling station in the presence of election agents of political parties, organisations/associations and candidates. Election agents are required to sign the results announcement form produced by the presiding officer to attest to the counting process.
Nghikembua said that a total of 120 Collation Centres have been established in all the 120 constituencies and 59 local authorities to collate the results from various polling stations for each constituency, where preliminary constituency results will be announced before being transmitted to the Central Elections Results Centre for verification, approval and final announcement.
“This multi-tier structure,” she said, “confirms the official verification and declaration of results as prescribed by the Electoral Act.”
She expressed gratitude to all registered voters who exercised their civic right by casting their votes and for maintaining peace and calm during the voting process.
Meanwhile, the results started coming in last night, showing a strong performance by the ruling SWAPO Party candidates, mostly in its traditional bastions.
Photo: NBC Digital News
