Namibia court dismisses opposition bid to annul presidential vote

WINDHOEK - Namibia's Supreme Court dismissed Friday a bid by the main opposition party to have the chaotic 2024 presidential election declared invalid after voting was extended twice.

The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has said it does not recognise the results of the November elections, won by the ruling SWAPO party which has been in power since independence in 1990.

The IPC argues that President Nangolo Mbumba acted outside his constitutional authority when he extended voting for two days in only some areas.

Mbumba acted on the advice of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) after logistical and technical problems resulted in massive queues outside polling stations as they were due to close on what was meant to be a single day of voting.

The court concluded that the presidential proclamation to extend voting was lawful, Chief Justice Peter Shivute said, reading aloud a summary of the ruling.

"We are satisfied that the ECN was competent to recommend and the president had the power... as occasion required, to make it possible for voters who would otherwise be disenfranchised, to vote on the 29th and the 30th of November 2024," he said.

"That extension did not amount to establishing new polling dates and a new election. It was a continuation and completion of the election," he said.

SWAPO won 57 percent of the votes in the presidential election, setting up its candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, to become the first woman president of the stable and sparsely populated southern African nation when she is sworn in next month.

The IPC presidential candidate Panduleni Itula took 25.5 percent of the vote, according to the final results.

'LET'S MOVE ON'

Itula, who is a lawyer and a dentist, said after the judgement that he accepted the court's decision.

"Let's accept it and let's move on," he said.

"Namibia will never develop if we constantly continue to blame each other. We must be able to accept people's authority, the power inherent in them, given to them by the constitution and how they exercise it," he added.

The court also ruled that both parties in the case should share costs of the legal action.

"Political stability was given preference over some dubious aspects," Namibia expert Henning Melber, of the Nordic Africa Institute at the University of Uppsala, told AFP.

"That costs are covered by both parties was the peace offer... But it won't eliminate the doubts as regards the validity of the election results," he said.

"If voting would have been extended everywhere, the suspicions would have been much less."