The main opposition party in Namibia submitted documents to the electoral court on Monday requesting access to the tallies for all votes cast and counted in the election from last month, as the results are expected to face legal challenges.
The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has already stated that it will not accept the election results, which were controversially delayed twice due to logistical and technical issues that prevented some individuals from voting on November 27.
The SWAPO party, which has been in power in the desert nation since gaining independence 34 years ago, was announced as the winner, with its presidential candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, receiving 57 per cent of the votes compared to 25.5 per cent for the IPC’s Panduleni Itula.
“There were evident irregularities during the election,” the IPC stated in its request to the court, urging the election authority to provide vote tallies from all four days of voting.
They required this information to assess the degree of the irregularities and to “consider whether to initiate legal action regarding the validity of the elections,” they explained.
The election authority acknowledged various setbacks on the first day of voting, including a lack of ballot papers and malfunctioning electronic tablets, which resulted in extremely long delays and queues lasting up to 12 hours, causing some voters to give up.
The IPC has claimed this was a deliberate effort to hinder voting by frustrating the electorate.
