PRESS RELEASE


HIGH COURT NIXES ECN DECISION AGAINST NSHR



Ladies and Gentlemen, we got them—I mean, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN). The Squirrel Mouse has defeated the Elephant! The figurative David has shot down the Goliathan monster, ECN. The rule of law has won and justice has prevailed.

During a media briefing with most of you two days ago, we vowed that, as an aggrieved legal person, we reserved our right to approach the Honorable High Court to enforce our fundamental human rights as enunciated in Articles 10, 17, 18, 21 and 25 of the Namibian Constitution. Hence, approaching the Honorable High Court was the only option we had to stop Dr. Victor Tonchi and other Swapo Party puppets to violate, with impunity, our inalienable right to be heard.
In the High Court, this morning, Acting Justice (AJ) Lady Marlene Tomassi, inter alia, ruled that ECN’s decision to cancel NSHR’s status as an Accredited Observer of the Presidential and National Assembly Elections was ultra vires and, hence, it is set aside. Tomassi AJ also ordered ECN to pay NSHR costs for the application as well as inform all the polling stations countrywide that NSHR’s Accredited Observers are allowed unhindered access to all polling stations.

The just obtained ruling of the Honorable High Court is testimony to what NSHR has been saying then and we are now repeating it here, that despite the legal provisions guaranteeing its institutional and operational independence, ECN has consistently demonstrated that in practical terms, it cannot be considered as a fair, impartial, neutral and transparent, let alone a credible, institution. ECN cannot be trusted as a credible, fair, transparent, honest, objective and non-partisan election management body in Namibia.

NSHR believes that ECN under Dr. Tonchi’s tutelage is nothing but an extension of the ruling Swapo Party’s systematic campaign of character and, many people warn, also physical assassination of NSHR’s leading human rights defenders. ECN is precisely what it had maliciously accused NSHR of!

The present sorry state of affairs at ECN must be laid squarely at the feet of its Chairperson Tonchi. Dr. Tonchi who behaves as if he is the law by himself and in himself and as if ECN is his private household.

The decision of the Honorable High Court this morning has also clearly demonstrated that Dr. Tonchi and his cohorts have not been obeying their own enabling law, the Electoral Act 1992 (Act 24 of 1992), as amended, and or that they have been applying this law selectively.

It can be recalled that last year Dr. Tonchi unlawfully and unconstitutionally dismissed summarily ECN Director of Elections Philemon Kanime spuriously, accusing Kanime of all sorts of wrongdoing. Recently, ECN under Tonchi corruptly granted a tender to print the ballot papers to NamPrint, a company wholly owned by his preferred political party of which Dr. Tonchi is a string-puppet. As if the Namprint fiasco was not enough, Tonchi took us on. He irresponsibly, unlawfully and unconstitutionally withdrew our accreditation status to observe the ongoing Presidential and National Assembly Elections.

Therefore, in its present form, and with Dr. Tonchi at the helm, ECN cannot be trusted, not least by NSHR, with the management the electoral processes in a fair, impartial and transparent manner, as contemplated under Section 4(1) of the Electoral Act 1992 (Act 24 of 1992). This is why and how NSHR is compelled to call upon President Lucas Pohamba to summarily dismiss Dr. Tonchi before he becomes any further embarrassment to ECN and a burden to the taxpayer due to his ill-advised actions. He is the common denominator to all the recurrent problems plaguing ECN. As an Oshiwambo saying goes: ‘What is eating the bean is inside the bean’!

NSHR unwaveringly reiterates its earlier claims that the voters’ registration process is fraught with gross irregularities and that blatant discrepancies and preposterous inclusion and or exclusions plague the so-called final voters’ register.

NSHR is deeply concerned that, contrary to the law and international conventions, hundreds, if not thousands, of voters might unlawfully be allowed to cast more than one vote each. We are also gravely concerned by the fact that the exact number of registered voters is unknown and that this state of affairs appears to be a deliberate attempt by ECN to facilitate the rigging of the elections.

NSHR is also deeply concerned and predicts that the number of persons who will vote today and tomorrow might by far exceed any of three conflicting figures released by various ECN spokespersons regarding the exact number of registered voters in the country.

We are deeply concerned and strongly condemn the fact that persons--who are not eligible to vote because they are not Namibian citizens or that they have not reached the voting age are in possession of voting cards--might be allowed by ECN to vote.

Meanwhile, NSHR sources within ECN reported that at least 2 000 voters, including Youth Minister Willem Konjore, have been issued with new voters’ cards by ECN on November 25 2009 alone. Human rights sources within ECN also reported that a large number of persons are making false sown declarations with the Police, claiming that they have lost their voters’ registration cards right after the supplementary voter registration drive which ended on September 30 2009.

“These include a male of about 40 years whom ECN Director of Elections had allegedly issued with letter of authorization to receive a new card, just to discover that this man last voted during 1989”, said NSHR executive director Phil ya Nangoloh.

NSHR is also aware of the fact that on November 26 2009 at least 200 ruling Swapo Party supporters were bussed to ECN Head quarters in Windhoek in order to receive “duplicate” cards.

We thank our legal advisors and legal experts extraordinaire, viz. Mr. Irvin Titus of P F Koep & Co and Advocate Lucia Hamuntenya, our senior counsel of repute, for assisting us to ensure that the rule of law is respected by Tonchi and his cohorts. The public remembers that these are the very same people who had failed to take a stand against the numerous pre-polling acts of violence and intimidation and provocations which NSHR has recorded over the last two years, since 2007.

We thank our media colleagues for keeping vigilance and for assisting the Namibian population to make their informed decision and further knowing their rights.

NSHR