The Independent Patriots for Change have approached the Electoral Court over the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s decision not to disclose the legal opinion on dual candidacy the commission obtained from the attorney general.
In a brief hearing heard by a full bench of judges yesterday, IPC wants the court to review and set aside the ECN’s decision of 3 August 2023 not to make the legal opinion from the attorney general on dual candidacy public.
The party also seeks an order directing ECN to make public the legal opinion given to it by the attorney general.
However, Deputy Judge President Hosea Angula, alongside judges Thomas Masuku and Hannelie Prinsloo, requested the parties to argue whether the Electoral Court is the right court to adjudicate the matter.
IPC’s lawyer Dirk Conradie argued that ECN had a stakeholders meeting, where the issue was raised whether the same person can be nominated for the National Assembly as well as the Presidency. This prompted ECN to consult the attorney general.
He said the matter at hand constitutes an electoral issue, which the Electoral Court must decide on.
“If this is not an electoral issue, then what is it? We are not asking for an opinion. We want the reasons for the decision not to share the opinion. We should not see this issue in a vacuum. What we are dealing with at the moment is a pre-election issue,” he said.
He questioned why ECN does not want to share the legal opinion it obtained from the attorney general.
“What is that decision all about? You can’t just make a decision based on nothing. That is why we say that the decision that they (ECN) took concerns an electoral matter,” argued Conradie.
Thus, the Electoral Court has jurisdiction to hear the application.
But Sakeus Akweenda from Government Attorneys, on behalf of ECN, said the Electoral Court does not have jurisdiction, and IPC’s application is nothing more than a “fishing expedition”.
He said the application seems to be one of discovery, and thus the High Court is the right court to hear the matter, not the Electoral Court.
“They want that legal opinion to compare with what they have. It is not that they do not know where ECN stands on the dual candidacy. We submit that this is not an electoral issue, and the court must refuse to hear this matter,” said Akweenda.
He said the ECN stakeholders meeting did not only discuss the issue of dual candidacy, it also discussed the Electoral Act amendments and the sealing of ballot boxes, amongst others. So, why does IPC only seek out the issue of dual candidacy? he asked.
The judges indicated that they would give a ruling on the issue of jurisdiction on 23 July.
-mamakali@nepc.com.na