Hertta-Maria Amutenja
High Court Judge Eileen Rakow dismissed an urgent application from Swapo member Reinhold Shipwikineni and four others. The applicants sought to overturn the central committee’s decision to postpone the party’s extraordinary congress until next year.
Rakow ruled on Monday that the application was not properly constituted and lacked the return of service documents.
Shipwikineni and the other applicants sought to nullify the candidacy of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as the SWAPO candidate for the upcoming presidential election.
They also requested that the court compel SWAPO to hold an extraordinary congress, as required by the party’s constitution.
The court ordered Shipwikineni to cover the suit’s costs.
Shipwikineni, along with Petrus Ndeshipanda Shituula, Joshua Vaino Martins, Erich Chrismann Shivute, and Aina Kalimba Angula, filed the application against the Swapo party, its presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, Efraim Nekongo, the Electoral Commission of Namibia, and the chairperson of the Electoral Commission.
They contended that the decision to postpone the congress violated Article 15(9) of the Swapo Party Constitution.
The applicants sought an order declaring that the resolution was made on or around 9 March to nominate Nandi-Ndaitwah as the presidential candidate for the elections scheduled on 27 November.
The main case involving Shipwikineni and the other Swapo members against the party and Nandi-Ndaitwah will be heard on 30 October.
Richard Metcalfe, the lawyer representing Shipwikineni, told the Windhoek Observer last week that his client does not seek to challenge Nandi-Ndaitwah’s nomination as the presidential candidate.
Last month, Swapo’s Secretary General, Sophia Shaningwa, in her affidavit, asserted that Shipwikineni’s application aims to create doubt over Nandi-Ndaitwah’s legitimacy as a candidate.
She described Shipwikineni as a destructive character who spreads misinformation about the party’s leadership.
Two weeks ago, Swapo’s deputy secretary general, Uahekua Herunga confirmed the party’s registration of Nandi-Ndaitwah as its presidential candidate with the Electoral Commission of Namibia.
He urged members to vote for Nandi-Ndaitwah and the party to maintain a two-thirds majority in the upcoming elections.
