Ester Mbathera
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM) has yet to release its final report on Namibia’s 2024 elections.
The preliminary report was issued two days after the elections, but the final report remains pending.
SEOM member, Magabolle Mafiri on Saturday told the Windhoek Observer that the report is still to be submitted to the Namibian government.
“In line with the SADC principles and guidelines, it will be copied to the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), following which it will be shared with electoral stakeholders after 90 days,” said Mafiri.
SEOM typically releases their preliminary statements, which provide initial assessments of the electoral process, within a few days after the elections.
Typically, one to two months after the elections, a final comprehensive report follows.
Political analyst Henning Melber expressed concern over the delay.
“This is a disturbing delay. Initially, the SADC Observer Mission seemed rather critical, as indicated by a few impromptu remarks of its leader, while members of the mission indicated a blatant bias in favour of Swapo,” he said.
Melber raised suspicions that there might be internal differences within the observer mission that have paralysed efforts to reach a united, consolidated report.
“Most likely, this is boiling down to pure politics. The mere fact that a report has not yet been released suggests, however, that the findings were not straightforward in favour of the procedures and the results. This in itself is an indication, even without a report,” said Melber.
He added that the claims by the opposition parties, which the Supreme Court only ruled on at the end of February, might have been another reason, following the motto, wait and see.
The final report is a full analysis of the Observer Mission’s observations and conclusions related to the final stages of an election campaign and the election itself.
“For this you do not have to delay a report for more than 60 days,” said Melber.
Retired diplomat Pius Dunaiski, who participated in various SADC electoral observer missions, also questioned the situation.
“It sounds so surreal. I participated in various SADC electoral observer missions in my life as a diplomat. This is a weird one,” he said.
Dunaiski suggested that the delay or absence of the report could be attributed to either severe administrative incompetence or internal divisions within SADC.
“SEOM reports are critical from the perspective that they serve as references for future improvements of electoral missions and systems in our region as well as the refinement of election observation methodologies. Only two reasons could be extrapolated: high levels of administrative incompetence or an embarrassing division and disagreement at the SADC level over the conclusions and recommendations of the report. The latter is most likely,” he said.
If the report has indeed been blocked or altered, Dunaiski warned that it would cast doubt on the legitimacy of the country’s political administration, the National Assembly.
“If true, it throws a serious and dark shadow on the legitimacy of the Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s administration and the National Assembly. It would be a dark moment for our constitutional democracy and could signal the end of credible governance in Namibia. What an inflection point it would be,” he said.
According to him, the situation would also put a shadow on the judiciary that gave the ECN, President Mbumba, and Swapo a clearance despite huge public uproar and cries of disapproval.
“We do stand at a fork in the road regarding our political development. Trust is fading fast, a bad result. A huge reform initiative would be needed then. Swapo must be held accountable for this credibility crisis politically,” he said.
