Gerson Uaripi Tjihenuna
Last week, the ECN ran a workshop for voter and civic education officers at Otjiwarongo. I had the honour, in my capacity as the Chairperson of the Research, Voter and Civic Education and Media Liaison Committee of the ECN, to give the opening remarks at that workshop.
The thrust of my remarks was that the voter and civic education officers were the catalysts between the ECN and the citizens. They are the ones who should impress upon the citizens the importance of their vote as sovereign citizens of the republic.
In Namibia, the people are sovereign subjects of the republic; and to that extent, they possess supreme or ultimate political power. Chapter 1 Article 1 (2) of the constitution of the Republic of Namibia reads as follows: “…all power shall vest in the people of Namibia who shall exercise their sovereignty through the democratic institutions of the State.” The sovereignty of the people implies that no authority is above the people as a collective entity.
Our first national elections in 1989 were a historic act, because, for the first time – after many years of colonial oppression and a protracted bloody conflict – power was transferred to the people.
Arguably, our young democracy may still have a lot of weaknesses, but the fact that for the last thirty-two years, the people have been able to freely elect their leaders, speaks volumes in terms of the quality of our democracy.
The constitution of the Republic of Namibia has been hailed internationally as one of the best in the world. Chapter 3 of the constitution is of particular interest to scholars because that is the chapter that covers Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The importance of Chapter 3 can only be fully appreciated if it is read in conjunction with Chapter 19 Article 131 that deals with the amendments to the Constitution. That Article reads as follows: “no repeal or amendment of any of the provisions of Chapter 3 hereof, in so far as such repeal or amendment diminishes or distracts from the fundamental rights and freedoms contained and defined in that Chapter shall be permissible under this Constitution, and no such purported repeal or amendment shall be valid or have any force or effect.” In simple terms, this means that no amendments should be effected on Chapter 3 if such amendments would lead to the “minimisation” of fundamental rights and freedoms.
What does all these have to do with voting? Chapter 3 Article 17 (2) states that “Every citizen who has reached the age of eighteen (18) years shall have the right to vote and who has reached the age of twenty-one (21) years, to be voted to public office, unless otherwise provided herein.” Therefore, voting is not just “a favour” that the citizens do for politicians (as some may think). It is a fundamental human right that is enshrined in our supreme law – the constitution of the Republic of Namibia. Secondly, in terms of Article 131 under Chapter 19, it is a right that cannot be “taken away.”
Chapter 1 Article 1 (2) of the constitution is worth elaborating on to make a case for the need to vote. That Article states that “…all power shall vest in the people of Namibia who shall exercise their sovereignty through the democratic institutions of the State.” In the simplest of terms, that means that during elections, the people – temporarily – “surrender” or “delegate” their “power” to the elected leaders on the basis of “a borrowed mandate.”
During election campaigns, the party in power would tell the citizens, “…this is how we have used the mandate you have entrusted unto us for the last five years, so give us another five years.” On the other hand, the opposition parties would tell the citizens “…your mandate was not put to good use, so please give that mandate to us.” This is basically what political campaigns and voting are all about. However, the bottom line is “all power belongs to the citizens’’ and when they vote, they delegate that power to the elected officials. This is of course a normative or theoretical position informed by constitutional provisions and not an empirically-based position that is supported by scientific research.
The people’s sacred sovereignty finds concrete expression in the secrecy of the ballot. As a collective, the people are sovereign, but that sovereignty is exercised privately in a ballot booth by citizens as single individual voters. In a democratic dispensation like ours, the secrecy of the ballot is a concrete expression of an absolute right because; all things being equal, no one can limit that right away.
The limitation to the right to vote can, for example, come about because of the dichotomy/gap between “formal citizenship” and “substantive citizenship.” In terms of our constitution and the relevant act of parliament, we are all “formal citizens.” However, we are not all “substantive citizens.” In the simplest of terms, “substantive citizens” are those citizens who are well-informed and empowered to claim the rights they are entitled to as “formal citizens.” Due to the lack of education and the English language handicap, the majority of our citizens have “capability deficit” and can therefore not effectively claim their rights – including the right to vote and to hold their elected leaders to account. It is this gap between “formal citizenship” and “substantive citizenship” that the voter and civic education officers need to fill.
During our first democratic elections in 1989, voter turnout for presidential elections was 97.3% and in 2019, it was 60.8%, the turnout for the National Assembly elections was 97.3% in 1989 and in 2019, it was 60.4%. In 1992, the voter turnout for the regional council elections and for the local authority elections was 81.2% and 82.3% respectively; and in 2020, the voter turnout for the same elections was 38.3% and 43.2% respectively.
These figures tell us two things: voter turnout has been declining over the years and voter apathy is a big problem. If we factor in demographic analysis, we will discover that voter apathy is more prevalent amongst young people. The importance of the role of voter and civic education officers in this regard can therefore not be stressed enough.