NAMIBIAN opposition says its “madness” to believe the Sadc Electoral Observer Mission observer mission which was “loaded with a lot of Zimbabweans” would give a fair assessment of that country’s elections.
Announcing the preliminary statements last week head of mission and Zimbabwe defence minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said the voter registration process was completed and verified without disturbances.
Muchinguri-Kashiri added the campaigning process was peaceful “and security prevailed” while there was no evidence of voters being intimidated.
Incumbent president Hage Geingob went on to be re-elected for a second term with a reduced majority on Saturday.
The leader of the Rally for Democracy and Progress, Mike Kavekotora, immediately hit out at the Muchinguri-Kashiri led election observer mission.
“The SADC observer mission was loaded with a lot of people from Zimbabwe. What do we expect from somebody who was coming from a rigged election in his or her own country? How do you expect that person to come and give you a proper observation in another country? That’s just not on,” Kavekotora told the Namibian.
He added: “We consider this matter to be very serious. As I said we’re going to engage the other political parties and we’ll keep our options open and see what’s the right course of action. Namibia cannot be manipulated. We have to come to a point where we say enough, is enough.”
A Namibian daily last week reported anomalies associated with the presidential and parliamentary elections in that country.
There are allegations that at one of the polling stations, International University of Management (IUM), in Windhoek, there was a rare occurrence where an Electronic Voting Machine (EVM) emitted a beeping sound without being touched.
Under normal circumstances, EVMs only make such sounds when a voter has registered their vote.
This comes after Botswana’s main opposition leader Duma Boko in October refused to meet the Sibusiso Moyo-led observer mission, accusing the regional body of bias.
Sadc electoral observer missions have for long been accused of allowing the tinkering of election results as long as they favoured ruling parties in the region.
The accusations gained traction in the recently held plebiscite in Mozambique, where Muchinguri-Kashiri also ironically headed the observer mission.
Mozambique opposition parties led by Renamo rejected the results and called for their nullification, accusing the government of breaching a peace deal by using violence and intimidation on voting day.
President Filipe Nyusi and his ruling Frelimo party retained power amid accusations that electoral processes were marred by fraud and other irregularities.
Sadc, however, concluded that the Mozambique election was conducted in an “orderly manner” and was above board.
