The spokesman for Namibia’s opposition coalition says a court will Tuesday hear the group’s dispute over last month’s general election results.
Libolly Haufiku claims the opposition uncovered “serious” irregularities which contradict the final results published by the electoral commission.
“What we are asking the court is to give an order for the ECN (Electoral Commission of Namibia) to release certain documents that we need to enable us to do a proper audit of the election results. Because we are disputing the results that were announced due to some serious irregularities that we uncovered,” he said.
Namibia media reported that 13 opposition parties participated in the legislative and presidential elections held November 27 and 28.
Last week, however, a court postponed an application by nine opposition parties contesting the results, which gave incumbent President Hifikepunye Pohamba's party a wide margin of victory.
But the opposition parties challenged the results after filing a lawsuit calling for an audit of the vote.
The electoral commission said last month’s general election was transparent -- a claim backed by the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) electoral observer mission.
But Haufiku said SADC’s assessment is not a true reflection of what happened during the election.
“We are not very surprised. They (SADC) have always been having such reports even after the Zimbabwean elections were rigged, in Angola, etcetera. I mean the facts on the ground show differently. As you can see, the report of the non-governmental organizations completely differ from the ones from the SADC and the other observers,” Haufiku said.
The results published by the Electoral Commission show President Pohamba’s ruling South West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO) won about 75 percent of the votes.
