Court rules Namibia opposition parties can inspect election data
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FILE PHOTO: A person votes in an extension of the presidential and national assembly elections after delays on the official election day earlier this week in Windhoek, Namibia, November 29, 2024. REUTERS/Noah Tjijenda/File Photo
WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Two Namibian opposition parties that are seeking to challenge the result of elections last month won a court order on Friday allowing them to inspect election materials they had requested to see.
Namibia's ruling party SWAPO won both the presidential and parliamentary elections on Nov. 27, extending its 34-year rule in the southern African state.
Opposition parties alleged the election was flawed and potentially invalid due to an extension of voting for several days, among other issues.
"There were clearly irregularities in the election. IPC seeks the information in order to ... determine the extent of the irregularities," the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), the largest opposition party, said in a court filing seen by Reuters.
"It also enables IPC to consider whether to launch proceedings concerning the validity of the elections," it said.
Another opposition party, the Landless People's Movement, joined the IPC in its request.
After a hearing on Friday morning, Namibia's electoral court ordered the electoral commission to provide the parties with election materials such as the number of votes cast and counted at each polling station on each day for their inspection.
It required the commission to produce the data next week.
The election was marred by ballot paper shortages and technical challenges, causing voting to be extended for up to three days in some places.
President-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah dismissed allegations that the election was flawed in her victory speech last week, saying, "I am not even listening to those critics".
The electoral commission had said that the vote was free and fair.
Nandi-Ndaitwah is due to take office in March as the country's first female president.
(Reporting by Nyasha Nyaungwa; Editing by Nellie Peyton and Frances Kerry)
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