Zorena Jantze<\/p>\n\n\n\n
HIGH Court judge Thomas Masuku has said that the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) was not properly advised in its decision to deregister the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) political party and that it erred by invoking the provisions of Section 152 of the Electoral Act, which provides for the deregistration of a political party, without affording the NEFF a hearing on why it should not be deregistered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Masuku expressed these sentiments in a judgment where he set aside the ECN\u2019s decision to deregister the NEFF party. The NEFF brought an urgent application before the High Court, praying that the decision of the ECN to deregister it on 17 June 2024 be declared unlawful for non-compliance with Article 18 of the Namibian Constitution and Section 152(f) of the Electoral Act 5 of 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NEFF was deregistered after it failed to submit its audited financial results on time. This included audited financial statements for the year 2022\/23 and publications for the years 2020\/2021 and 2021\/2022’s abridged versions of the audited financial statements in two daily newspapers circulating in Namibia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The NEFF contended that the ECN, which purported to have acted in terms of the Act when it deregistered the party, was wrong in doing so. It argued that the ECN acted prematurely by deregistering it because it had not complied with the provisions of Section 140(6) of the Act. The NEFF further submitted that the ECN acted unfairly in that it did not afford the applicant the right to be heard before taking the egregious decision to deregister it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The respondent (ECN) contended that it had deregistered the applicant “by the book” of the law, as it were. It claimed that the applicant had failed to live by the edict of the Act in that it contravened Sections 139, 140, and 141 of the Act. It also submitted that in terms of Section 152, it retained the right to cancel the registration of a political party if, in its opinion, the said political party is guilty of persistent violations of the provisions of the Act. This, it claimed, had happened in this case, with the applicant consistently being found on the wrong side of the applicable law. This, it is claimed, left the ECN with very little choice other than to exercise the powers of deregistration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Touching on what the relevant laws are in terms of the matter at hand, Masuku said that Section 139(4), read together with Section 152, dictates that if a registered political party or registered organisation fails to declare its assets and liabilities in terms of Section 139 \u2014 which includes failure to state the source of its funding and assets after being afforded a period of 21 days by the respondent to do so \u2014 the ECN may cancel that political party’s registration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge, however, added that a proper reading of the two sections conjunctively means that where a registered political party fails to declare its assets and has been afforded a period of 21 days to comply, the respondent may cancel the registration of that party, but only after having given the political party, organisation, or authorised representative an opportunity to be heard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“I am of the considered view that the requirement that a political party be heard was not a mere fastidious requirement in the law. In my mind’s eye, I capture the reality that political parties are the cog in the wheel that makes democracy function optimally. For that reason, and in light of the observations made in this judgment, it is clear that the decision to deregister a political party is a very serious one, in view of the impact it may have on the exercise of political rights protected by Article 17. It is for that reason that political parties may not be willy-nilly deregistered, even if their proverbial hands are dripping in the blood of non-compliance with the Act. The machinery set out in the Act, including the right to be heard, must be fully complied with,” the judge said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Zorena Jantze HIGH Court judge Thomas Masuku has said that the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) was not properly advised in its decision to deregister the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) political party and that it erred by invoking the provisions of Section 152 of the Electoral Act, which provides for the deregistration of a …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":362492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-362491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n