WINDHOEK – The Electoral Commission of Namibia yesterday claims its top administrator Theo Mujoro was receiving death threats following the recently concluded general election.
In a statement yesterday, the ECN said it has noted with concern personal attacks, hate speech and insults directed at Mujoro on social media and at a personal level. “The commission reiterates that decisions are collective and members of the public should desist from personal attacks and singling out the CEO,” the statement reads.
This week, The Namibian reported that Mujoro, who is the chief electoral and referenda officer at the ECN, has opened a case of defamation of character against a certain Justice Veii. “Since the end of our elections, I have been suffering on a daily basis, personal attacks, hatred and even death threats directed at me personally, precisely because of these type of fabrications and lies,” Mujoro was quoted as saying by The Namibian.
The ECN has been hogging the headlines for all the wrong reasons.
This week, it also emerged that the ECN’s technical director Milton Louw is facing charges of theft after a case was opened against him last week. Louw has since been arrested and is expected to appear in court today.
The ECN yesterday said it would not comment on the unfolding matter, highlighting that all electoral matters are now sub judice. The ECN is in fact listed as a responded in the court case that is yet to be heard in the Supreme Court where independent presidential candidate Dr Panduleni Itula is challenging the outcome of the general election, which declared incumbent President Hage Geingob as duly elected. The challenge is headed by Itula who is standing by his claims that the election was rigged in Geingob’s favour. Itula received 29.4 percent of the total presidential vote, while Geingob scooped a reduced majority of 56.3 percent. The other applicants in the matter are Henk Mudge of RP, Epafras Mukwiilongo of the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF), Ignatius Shixwameni of APP and Mike Kavekotora of RDP.
In a founding affidavit submitted by Itula’s lawyer Elize Ndjavera Angula to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Itula is seeking that the presidential election be declared void and also for the court to overturn the results “on the grounds of irregularities”.
“The questioned presidential election did not comply with [the] constitutional requirement. The election did not take place in accordance with the principles and procedures determined by parliament,” said the dentist-turned-politician.
Missing EVMs
Meanwhile, the ECN also touched on the issue of missing electronic voting machines, which went missing in 2017. “The ECN was notified by the Namibian police on 16 December 2019, about the discovery of two control units and was able to positively identify the items,” the ECN said. “The ECN can publicly confirm that the serial numbers of the two control units recently discovered by the Namibian police correspond positively with the serial numbers that were shared in a public information notice on missing EVMs dated 30 October 2019 in the local media. The ECN would like to clarify that the two control units found are still in the custody of police.” The ECN is further hoping that the police would make a breakthrough with regards to the rest of the missing units.