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| The 1989 Election |
The
1992 Regional Council and Local Authority Elections
The 1994 Presidential
and National Assembly Elections
The 1998 Regional
Councils Election
The 1999 Presidential
and National Assembly Elections |
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The fourth Presidential and National Assembly elections were held
from 15th to 16th December 2004. The elections saw the entry of two “new” political
parties to the election arena; the Republican Party (RP) and Nudo,
both splinter groups from the DTA. |
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The presidential campaign
and election
Campaigning preceding the election and “election fever” were
muted in comparison to the campaigning by SWAPO presidential candidate
nominees in May 2004, where Minister of Lands, Resettlement and
Rehabilitation Hifikepunye Pohamba was elected SWAPO candidate
at the extraordinary congress at the end of May 2004. Candidate
Pohamba won the election, almost reaching Nujoma’s 1999 election
result level and outstripping SWAPO’s national election result.
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| Name |
Party |
Votes |
% |
| Justus //Garoeb |
United Democratic Front • UDF |
31,354 |
3.8% |
| Katuutire Kaura |
Democratic Turnhalle Alliance
• DTA |
41,905 |
5.1% |
| Henk Mudge |
Republican Party • RP |
15.955 |
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| Hifikepunye Pohamba |
SWAPO |
625,605 |
76.4% |
Kosie Pretorius
|
Monitor Action Group • MAG |
9,378 |
|
| Kuaima Riruako |
National Unity Democratic Organisation • Nudo |
34,616 |
4.2% |
| Ben Ulenga |
Congress of Democrats • CoD |
59,547 |
7.3% |
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National Assembly campaign
and election
Whilst opposition parties campaigned only a few weeks before the
elections, SWAPO started to mobilize its supporters and hold rallies
shortly after the congress in May. Notably, intimidation and hate
speech, characteristic of the ’99 Election, were absent from
the campaigning platform and the elections held in an amicable atmosphere
with high turnout, attributed to the fact that President Sam Nujoma
was retiring and would not join the presidential race, rather than
to any campaign issues per se.
The results were announced on 21st November 2004 as follows:
• Registered voters: 977,742
• Votes cast: 827,402 /
84.6%
• Spoilt ballots: 11,421 /
1.38% |
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| Party |
Votes |
% |
Seats |
| Congress of Democrats • CoD |
59,494 |
7.31% |
5 |
| Democratic Turnhalle Alliance • DTA |
41,697 |
5.12% |
4 |
| Monitor Action Group • MAG |
6,919 |
0.85% |
1 |
| Namibian Movement for Democratic Change |
4,143 |
0.51% |
0 |
| National Unity Democratic Organisation • Nudo |
33,857 |
4.16% |
3 |
| Republican Party • RP |
15,973 |
1.96% |
1 |
| South West Africa National Union • SWANU |
3,446 |
0.42% |
0 |
| SWAPO |
619,066 |
76.06% |
55 |
| United Democratic Front • UDF |
29,360 |
3.61 |
3 |
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Concerns raised by the opposition, including criticism
of the Commission for printing 1,9 million ballot papers each for
the National and Regional Council elections when there were 977,742
registered voters; the allocation of apportioned air time to political
parties which however favoured the ruling party and; the delay in
counting of the votes, were eclipsed by the discovery of 22 ballot
papers – some partially burnt – in a dry river bed just
outside Okahandja on 25th November 2005, four days after the results
were announced.
Of the 22 ballots, ten were for Nudo, six for the RP, two for the CoD, one each
for the DTA, UDF and NMDC and one ballot was spoilt. Although the 22 votes do
not impact significantly on the results, questions regarding the integrity of
the process were certainly raised and rumours rife. |
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The Opposition Petition
Initially declared “free and fair”, the results were challenged by
opposition petition on 22 December 2004 when the CoD and RP filed an application
with the High Court asking that either the results be set aside or that an order
to audit the ballots be issued. |
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| In order to finance the petition, the parties
unveiled plans to launch a fund to be known as Salvage Democracy
on 2 January 2004.
Although the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) announced that
it would oppose the application on 18 January – by which time
Swanu, UDF and NamDMC had joined the petition – it failed to
meet the 7th February deadline. The hearing was provisionally postponed
until 3rd March. Further potential legal recourse loomed against
the ECN due to their apparent inability to provide the opposition
parties with the electronic version of the voters roll as per a December
High Court judgment that it grant the CoD and RP access to election-related
documents. In a twist, controversial allegations were made against
both the CoD and RP as instigators of the ballot scandal. |
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The High Court Judgement
The High Court, on 10 March 2005, ordered that the announcement of
the National Assembly election results – as published in
Government Notice 3 2005 – be declared null
and void an of no force and effect. The case was heard on 3, 4 and 7 March 2005.
It furthermore ordered the Electoral Commission of Namibia to:
• Recount the votes cast in the election at a secure and convenient
location in Windhoek and as provided for by electoral laws;
• Start such a recount within 5 calendar days and finish within a
reasonable time thereafter, but not later than 10 calendar days;
• Allow the opposition to exercise their rights with regard to the
recount as provided for by the Electoral Act of 1992;
• Ensure that the results of the recount are announced in terms of
Section 89 of the Electoral Act of 1992;
• Pay the costs of the hearing.
The judgment noted that although the term of office of the 3rd
National Assembly would ipso facto expire with the members of the
Executive (with the exception of the President) at midnight on
20 March 2005, it would be inappropriate to “express any
views on the legal consequences of the constitutional vacuum which
might result if members of the 4th National Assembly cannot take
up their seats, such a state of affairs will be most undesirable
in the running of the affairs of state.
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| The Recount |
After a delay of eight hours, counting started on Sunday, 13 March
2005 at the Windhoek Show Grounds. The opposition criticized the
Commission on logisitical arrangements, predominantly regarding accommodation
and ablution facilities at the Grounds which had to house approximately
800 people, their bedding and 2,300 ballot boxes for four days.
The
most contentious issue of the recount was the fate of 40 waterlogged
ballot boxes (predominantly from Ohangwena region), which became
the subject of a forensic investigation after it was found that
not all ballots bore the Commission’s secret stamp. Whilst
the penciled-in vote was not affected by water, the secret stamp,
however, may have been washed off. A total of 935 such ballots
were finally declared invalid. Doubts were further raised as to
whether all boxes were accounted for after sources maintained that
not all boxes contained identification tags other than serial numbers
indicating their origin. |
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| The Recount Results |
| The results were announced by the Director of Elections on Wednesday,
16 March 2005, four days after the start of the recount. |
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First Count |
The Recount |
| Total Number of votes |
827,405 |
829,269 |
| Spoilt ballots |
11,405 |
10,830* |
| Seat Quota |
11,305 |
11,367 |
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| * Includes 935 water-damaged ballots. |
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| The 72 seats of he National Assembly were allocated as follows: |
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First Count: Votes
and seats |
The Recount:
Votes and seats |
| CoD |
59,465 - 5 seats |
59,464 – 5 seats |
| DTA |
41,714 – 4 seats |
42,070 – 4 seats |
| MAG |
6,920 – 1 seat |
6,950 – 1 seat |
| NDMC |
4,138 – 0 seats |
4,380 – 0 seats |
| Nudo |
33,874 – 3 seats |
34,814 – 3 seats |
| RP |
15,965 – 1 seat |
16,187 – 1 seat |
| Swanu |
3,438 – 0 seats |
3,610 – 0 seats |
| SWAPO |
620,787 – 55 seats |
620,609 – 55 seats |
| UDF |
29,336 – 3 seats |
30,355 – 3 seats |
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| Whilst the recount did indicate that errors had been made, the
outcome was similar to the November 2004 count and the allocation
of seats was not influenced. |
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