ECN says extension of party nominee submissions a result non-compliance

The Electoral Commission of Namibia on Friday clarified its decision to grant an extension to political parties due to nominations referred back for non-compliance. The required rectifications relate to a total of 68 nominations, broken down in 35 nominations for the regional council elections, and 33 nominations for the local authority elections. This comes after Swapo Party secretary general Sophia Shaningwa on Friday wrote a letter to ECN in which she raised concerns over the extension. The deadline for all political parties’ candidate nomination list submissions was initially 16 October. Shaningwa described the move as an abuse of the law. ECN chief executive Peter Shaama in a statement issued on Friday said the nominations referred back were premised on various non-compliance issues identified during the scrutiny process. “The summary of reasons requiring urgent rectification include: absence of an attachment of a certificate of registration, non-affixation of the party or organisation seal, unsigned nominations, and failure to meet the gender representation threshold in respect of local authority nominations (depending on the number of seats for the council concerned),” Shaama said. He noted that in the period preceding and including the nomination day, numerous nomination records were analysed by the returning officer(s) and referred back to the respective entities via the Political Party and Candidate Management (PPCM) portal. He said the extension allows political parties, candidates, and associations to address immediate non-compliance issues. The required rectifications pertain to 11 political parties, eight independent candidates and one association – the Rehoboth Ratepayers’ Association, Shaama said. Shaama said the authority for the returning officer(s) to grant an opportunity for correction is expressly provided for under the Electoral Act, 2014 (Act No. 5 of 2014). Specifically, Section 82(7)(b) empowers the returning officer for a constituency, upon rejecting a nomination: “To afford the registered political party or the persons by whom the nominations were submitted an opportunity, at any time before the close of the sitting, to rectify the nomination or to duly nominate any other qualified person as candidate for the constituency”. Political parties, associations and prospective candidates were requested to urgently address the outstanding issues, and effect correction via the PPCM portal on 17 October at 15h00. This stringent timeframe, Shaama noted, was necessary to ensure the finality and integrity of the overall electoral process.