Eba Kandovazu
BARELY a week after the Swapo Party of Namibia was stripped off its incumbency in the Ndonga Linena constituency, it has yet again been declared the winner in that constituency following a recount of the votes today.
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) this afternoon announced that Swapo Party is the winner, after the Electoral Court last week nullified the results in which it emerged victorious. The party’s candidate, Michael Kampota, will again be sworn in. Last week the court also nullified his initial swearing in, after the All People’s Party (APP) challenged the matter, saying that more than 40 ballots, which the ECN declared as spoiled, were indeed not spoiled ballots.
The Swapo Party says they would only pronounce themselves on the matter tomorrow. Swapo’s votes stood at 1094, while the APP stood at 1074. On Monday, the Swapo Party declined the ECN’s request to take part in the recounting, questioning the Commission’s integrity. Swapo Party Secretary General (SG), Sophia Shaningwa, instead called for an election rerun in the constituency. Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) stood at 72 votes, while the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) stood at 146 votes. A 20 ballots were rejected this time around.
ECN Chief Electoral Officer (CEO), Theo Mujoro, earlier this week said that the recount exercise would be conducted as provided for in terms of Section 105 of the Electoral Act of 2014 and stakeholders and affected political parties have been informed accordingly.
Additionally, Mujoro said ECN will ensure that all security mechanisms will be deployed during the recount process to ensure that the process is fully transparent to ensure integrity of the results.
