Preserve your independence, court urges Namibian election commission
A full bench of Namibia’s high court has found that the country’s electoral commission acted unlawfully when it removed certain approved names from the list of candidates supplied by a political party and allowed other party members to replace them and be sworn-in, instead. Two members of Namibia’s Popular Democratic Movement brought the application when the electoral commission permitted a number of PDM members, not on the PDM list approved by the electoral commission before the polls, to replace those who had been approved by the commission.
Read judgment
Though it might seem to some a petty issue, brought by candidates irritated with being sidelined from the National Assembly at the last minute, this is a case that goes right to the heart of what constitutes a democratic election. And the proper course for an electoral commission to adopt in order to be – and to be seen to be – independent.
