The five-year reign of Theo Mujoro as head of the Electoral Commission of Namibia was a total nightmare, at least from where parliamentarian Henny Seibeb sits.
Mujoro is not among the five shortlisted male candidates for the chief electoral and referenda officer. Yesterday, he confirmed his imminent departure.
Most candidates appear to be at the sunset of their careers.
The frontrunners for the hot seat are Vincent Sazita (63), Petrus Shaama (58), Helmuth Nawaseb (59), Oscar Muyatwa (51) and Michael Tjivikua, who is 61. They average 58 years, just two years shy of the civil servants’ retirement age.
The public interviews are slated for 30 June 2023. A month later, a successful candidate, if any, will be unveiled.
“In terms of section 17 (13) of the Electoral Act, registered voters may at any time before this meeting [interviews], in writing lodge with the chairperson of the commission an objection against the appointment of any person as chief electoral and referenda officer,” the commission announced.
Yesterday, the commission said there was nothing amiss about the male-only shortlisted candidates.
“In summary, 12 applications were received. Although women were encouraged to apply, only one applicant was a woman and she unfortunately did not meet the requirements,” ECN said in a statement yesterday.
Back in 2018, five male candidates were shortlisted and interviewed for the position.
They were Moses Ndjarakana (late), Mujoro, Franco Cosmos, Amon Haimbangu and Nawaseb.
New Era yesterday also solicited input from political actors to gauge Mujoro’s performance at one of the most strategic democratic institutions of State.
Landless People’s Movement second-in-command, Seibeb, was rather unimpressed.
“Theo Mujoro was a nightmare for us at ECN. Over the years, the political parties and public lost confidence in him and the ECN,” the LPM firebrand said.
He was not done.
“We’ve absolutely lost trust in the ECN and at times we had to defend democracy as we did in Keetmanshoop on 15 May camping at the police station to guard ballot papers,” the political strategist said.
The disappearance of 117 laptops at ECN’s head office in the capital does not help Mujoro’s legacy, either.
“I’ll rate Mujoro 0/10 for being absolutely worse. I understand two laptops were recovered,” Seibeb further stated.
In the meantime, Popular Democratic Movement leader, McHenry Venaani scored Mujoro 5/10 or 50%.
“I think I would give him a five primarily because of his long tenure. He has improved the running of by-elections in the country. I can give him credit,” Venaani said.
But the seasoned politician has reservations about Mujoro’s overall performance.
“If you look at the overall performance of the electoral commission, especially when it comes to having a credible voters’ roll, as we are going to the next election, under his watch we have never seen an improvement in the voters’ roll,” Venaani said.
He added: “It [voters roll] is always a wishy-washy voters’ roll that is just presented a few days before elections without credible information on it to deliberately put voters that don’t have documents on that roll.”
The controversial electronic voting machines which were declared unconstitutional in 2020, will also haunt Mujoro’s legacy.
“He could have been a better performer but they were insisting on bringing these EVMs and how they ran that election. The biggest pain on the electoral commission is also that it is a body controlled by State intelligence. And that shouldn’t be the case. So in terms of [electoral] independence, he hasn’t done much,” he said.
However, “As an administrator, he has improved from previous administrators that were there.”
The promise
Back in 2018, when stating his case on why he was the most suitable candidate, Mujoro promised to ensure the autonomy of the commission and that the entity becomes relevant in the regions.
Mujoro, a former journalist and master’s degree holder in public administration, has been at the commission for over two decades now.
“I strongly believe that I am capable of taking on this particular responsibility. There is not a thing I do not know about this organisation. Maybe it’s not a fancy statement to say but I have been around. In fact, the position I currently have is de facto CEO,” he stated then, while occupying the operations manager portfolio at ECN.