EDITORIAL: ECN’s ballot excuses can’t hold
The Electoral Commission of Namibian (ECN) must, at all material times, be seen to be beyond reproach. Its actions and intentions must come across as that of an institution that is credible, impartial and determined to administer elections with integrity.
The proposition to seek exemption from the public procurement process of acquiring ballot papers for the November general election does not bathe ECN in glory. Forget whether this would be accepted or not – the thought of it alone is nauseating.
For way too long, ECN has gotten away with the proverbial murder of our electoral processes. In 2019, it used electronic voting machines that had no verifiable paper trail. This is against the law, hence the Supreme Court order to discontinue that process.
ECN was also party to and lost a court case together with the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), which illegally changed its gazetted list of parliamentary updates and brought in lawmakers who were never gazetted. Again, the Supreme Court tossed out their defence of this irregular practice, leading to the ouster of the gang that was illegally wheelbarrowed into the National Assembly.
We could go on until sunset about other unwashed behaviour of ECN, but the point really is that this body must be beyond reproach. Namibians have invested their blood, sweat and tears into this democracy, therefore it cannot just be cheaply played with. ECN had all the time in the world to procure a ballot printer through the established processes, instead of begging to take questionable shortcuts at the eleventh hour.
The proposition to seek exemption from the public procurement process of acquiring ballot papers for the November general election does not bathe ECN in glory. Forget whether this would be accepted or not – the thought of it alone is nauseating.
For way too long, ECN has gotten away with the proverbial murder of our electoral processes. In 2019, it used electronic voting machines that had no verifiable paper trail. This is against the law, hence the Supreme Court order to discontinue that process.
ECN was also party to and lost a court case together with the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), which illegally changed its gazetted list of parliamentary updates and brought in lawmakers who were never gazetted. Again, the Supreme Court tossed out their defence of this irregular practice, leading to the ouster of the gang that was illegally wheelbarrowed into the National Assembly.
We could go on until sunset about other unwashed behaviour of ECN, but the point really is that this body must be beyond reproach. Namibians have invested their blood, sweat and tears into this democracy, therefore it cannot just be cheaply played with. ECN had all the time in the world to procure a ballot printer through the established processes, instead of begging to take questionable shortcuts at the eleventh hour.
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Namibian Sun
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