Andrew Kathindi
Landless People’s Movement (LPM) has filed an urgent application to the High Court to oppose Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN)’s case to have the results of the elections in Aroab and Koës local authorities in the //Kharas region and Stampriet and Mariental Rural constituency in the Hardap region voided.
According to the party, an election re-run in areas of the southern region where it currently has a stronghold would be a waste of taxpayer money.
“When you look at it, only about 67 votes is where there are disparities and we’re saying, those 67 votes don’t make any material difference on the outcome of the entire election. It won’t change the result in its entirety,” LPM’s Operative Secretary Edson Isaaks told Windhoek Observer.
He further questioned why ECN would pursue the matter when it was unlikely to change the overall outcome, stating that it would waste money.
“Therefore, it’s unnecessary to spend another million from ECN, which is taxpayers’ money, plus ourselves, we’ve put in a lot of money as a party to run an election campaign which we’ve won.”
“We’ve got a massive chance of winning the case.”
The official results for Aroab, Koës, Stampriet and Mariental Rural constituency have not yet been released by the ECN, but earlier this week, ECN Chief Electoral officer (ECN), Theo Mujoro confirmed that it was discovered that wrong ballot papers at the polling stations in these areas were used for voting during the elections which took place on Wednesday, 25 November.
“There was a mix up in the manner in which the papers were packed in metal boxes and even at the distribution point, boxes that were meant for other areas were mixed up,” said Mujoro.
In the Mariental local Authority, LPM swept the votes with 1,726 out of 2,954 and secured four seats in the Council out of seven.
The matter has been postponed to Wednesday.
