By Prof Paul John Isaak, Chief Electoral Officer of the Election Commission of Namibia, 5 February 2015.
1. Background to the 2014 Presidential and National Assembly Elections
The Electoral Act, Act 5 of 2014, read with Section 3 states that “the
objectives of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) are to organise,
direct, supervise, manage and control the conduct of elections and
referenda in a fair, fair, independent, credible, transparent and
impartial manner as well as to strengthen constitutional democracy and
to promote democratic electoral and referenda processes.”
On
such a mandate and objectives the ECN conducted the 2014 Presidential
and National Assembly Elections on Friday, 28 November 2014. The
elections were held under the theme “Consolidating Namibia’s Democracy.”
At the outset as we shall argue here below two points: First, the
Presidential and National Assembly Elections were credible reflections
of the will of the electorate of Namibia, and second, the booklet,
Celebrating 25 Years of Democratic Elections, testifies to the fact that
the 2014 Presidential and National Assembly Elections were indeed free,
fair, credible, and democratic.
I make such a statement in
light of the words as expressed by President Hifikepunye Pohamba. He has
praised the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) for conducting free,
fair and transparent 2014 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
President Pohamba said that despite challenges, the ECN conducted
credible, modern and successful elections which comply with regional and
international standards.
President Pohamba said: “Namibia
is proud of these men and women who worked day and night to give our
country a high quality election process.” President Pohamba also
congratulated the entire nation on successful elections, saying it is
another demonstration that multi-party democracy had grown deep roots in
Namibia as its chosen system of governance. He further commended all
political parties which participated in the elections for the
contribution to strengthening democracy in the country. President
Pohamba applauded President-Elect Hage Geingob from the SWAPO-Party as
well the newly-elected Members of the Parliament.
All the
contesting political parties, the candidates, the electorate and all
stakeholders in the country must be commended for the peaceful manner in
which they conducted themselves during the electoral process and the
same spirit prevailed in the post-election period. According to a
statement by the DTA of Namibia, as quoted in The Namibian Sun of 19
December 2014, it is expected from all Namibian political parties after
the just concluded elections that the “Presidential and National
Assembly election race has been run, and it is now the responsibility of
all parties to put their differences aside and collectively contribute
to addressing Namibia’s developmental challenges.”
To put it
differently, Namibia must be congratulated, notwithstanding some
challenges for having conducted free, fair, independent, credible, and
transparent Presidential and National elections as well as the use of
EVMs during the 2014 elections. Such elections in Namibia demonstrated
once again that Namibia is the place where democracy in action works.
But in order to read more on the success story of the just concluded
2014 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, one ought to consult
certain credible sources to verify such statements on the successful
2014 elections in Namibia. Let me turn to this aspect and look closer
into one specific source.
2. A Booklet with the title: Celebrating 25 Years of Democratic Elections: Years of 1989 to 2014
This booklet is a very useful tool to do research on the story of the
25 years of democratic elections in Namibia. Well known personalities in
their own academic fields contributed towards the book.
Professor Heribert Weiland reflects on the 2014 Elections by asking the
question whether the 2014 elections have the sign of a new beginning
within the African context. His answer is affirmative. Mr Graham Hopwood
has done an outstanding research on the Namibian elections since 1989.
Briefly he highlighted each of the Namibian elections since 1989.
Professor Gerhard Tötemeyer articulated on the themes of elections and
democracy in Namibia. A must read part of the booklet, especially when
he discussed democracy from the perspective of whether one can “eat
democracy” or how democracy is directly related to bread and butter
issues.
Dr Henning Melber focuses on the political history
of Namibia with special reference to The Constitution of the Republic of
Namibia. He asked the basic question whether Namibia experienced after
25 years of constitutional democracy progress or regress. His main
argument is that constitutional principles should never be abandoned,
twisted or deformed because “the fight for democracy, human rights,
dignity and justice will always continue, in different forms and
degrees, under whichever political order.”
Professor Bill
Lindeke has the task to reflect of the three central political leaders
of Namibia since independence because “Namibia can boast of having
presidents who are among the most trusted and best performing on the
African continent.” Therefore the author focusses on President Sam
Nujoma, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, and President-Elect, Hage
Geingob. This section shall be good informative reading for the
beginners on Namibian political leadership and democratic elections at
the expense of the key role of the civil societies are somewhat
irrelevant. Therefore, as an academic and community activist he
approached the subject from the perspective of the marginalised.
So, what do we learn from this booklet?
First a deeper insight into elections and democracy, and second an
accurate statistical information on the election results since 1989. Let
me briefly explicate:
3. Elections and Democracy in Namibia
The first aspect of the booklet is on elections and democracy. Let us
underscore that elections and democracy means that Namibians want to see
tangible benefits from having voted and that issues such as employment,
alleviation of poverty, gender equality, adequate social and medical
care, adequate and affordable housing, quality education and allocation
to land must be successfully addressed and implemented. To put it more
strongly and boldly, only when such basic needs of daily life are
implemented the electorate will believe that people could “eat
democracy” and that democracy delivers credible products.
To
concretise upon the concept of “eating democracy” let me add that
through democratic elections any government ought to enable the poor
access to food, proper and affordable housing, clinics and hospitals,
and safe and peaceful environment in the whole country.
I am
of the opinion that basic human needs—protection of the environment;
food; clothing; shelter; health care and, by implication, the basic
socio-political need for human dignity, human rights and integrity are
part and parcel of democracy. Democratic practice, in turn, is a good
basis for even and equitable distribution of the resources for
Namibians.
To reiterate, there ought to be a definite
conceptual linkage between socio-politico-economic rights and democracy
as well as between functioning democracy and electoral processes. Once
such integration has been achieved one can proudly say that through any
election the will of the people is victorious. Let me now briefly focus
on the second aspect of the booklet.
4. The Results of the 2014 Presidential and National Assembly Elections
The second aspect that is highlighted in the booklet is statistic
information of all Namibian elections since 1989, in particularly on
what happened on Friday, 28 November 2014. A total of nine candidates
ran for the presidency, whilst sixteen political parties contested the
National Assembly elections. Incumbent President Hifikepunye Pohamba was
unable to stand for re-election due to constitutional term limits, and
shall be succeeded by President-Elect Hage Geingob of the ruling SWAPO
Party, who won the presidential elections with a historic ground
breaking record of 86. 73 per cent of the vote.
To get
statistical information on the results of the 2014 Presidential and
National Assembly Elections the booklet provides valuable statistical
information on page 18 on the results of Presidential Elections since
1994. For our immediate attention the results for the 2014 Presidential
election were as follow:
In accordance with Section 109 (2)
of the Electoral Act, Dr Hage Gottfried Geingob was declared as the
President-Elect. He has accumulated a total of Seven Hundred and Seventy
Two Thousand Five Hundred Twenty Eight (772, 528) votes in the
Presidential race, duly elected as President with effect from such date
as determined by the Namibian Constitution. In a summary form the
results were:
TOTAL VOTES: 890,738
NUMBER | CANDIDATE | VOTES | PERCENT |
1 | Geingob, Hage Gottfried | 772,528 | 86.73 |
2 | Hamutenya, Hidipo Livius | 30, 197 | 3.39 |
3 | Maamberua, Usutuaije | 5,028 | 0.56 |
4 | Mbai, Asser | 16,740 | 1.88 |
5 | Mudge, Henry Ferdinand | 8,676 | 0.97 |
6 | Mukwiilongo, Jan Epafras Mulinasho | 2,514 | 0.28 |
7 | Shixwameni, Ignatius Nkotongo | 7,266 | 0.82 |
8 | Ulenga, Ulenga Benjamin | 3,518 | 0.39 |
9 | Venaani, McHenry Mike Kanjonokere | 44,271 | 4.97 |
As indicated above, on 28 November 2014, eligible Namibians voted for the Presidential Election. The outcome of the Presidential election was that Dr Geingob received 86.63 per cent votes. Thereby Namibia remains politically stable, with a new government to take office in March 2015. In other words, the country did have the opportunity to build a stronger democracy and system of governance that are accommodative to all.
To that effect, the President-Elect, Dr Hage Geingob, displayed some
humility by acknowledging the weight of expectations that Namibians have
placed on him in his acceptance speech, and by calling on all Namibians
to work with him. “I cannot carry out [the responsibilities] alone,” he
said. “Let’s hold hands. I will be President of all the Namibian
people. No Namibian must feel left out,” Dr Geingob emphasised.
In summary: Compare to other elections, the ECN is glad to repeat the
1989 success story. The November 2014 Presidential and National Assembly
Elections are historic in the sense that for the first time since 1989
the results were not challenged, unlike in the aftermath of previous
elections.
Second, it is historic in the sense that for the
first time a presidential candidate, namely President–Elect, Dr Hage
Gottfried Geingob was elected by the entire electorate of Namibia and
won a historic ground breaking record of 86.73 per cent votes.
Lastly, Namibians have made Namibia a proud democratic African country
and thereby the theme “Consolidating Namibia’s Democracy” was not merely
a slogan but a reality and such reality was made possible by the
Namibian nation.
Now a brief look into the results of the
National Assembly Elections of 2014. A total of sixteen (16) Political
Parties contested the National Assembly Elections. The results as
summarised on pages 24-26 in the booklet is as follows:
PARTY VOTES SEATS
Party | Votes | Seats |
All People’s Party | 20,431 | 2 |
Christian Democratic Voice Party | 2,606 | 0 |
Congress of Democrats | 3,404 | 0 |
Democratic Party of Namibia | 1,131 | 0 |
DTA of Namibia | 42,933 | 5 |
Monitor Action Group | 3,073 | 0 |
Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters | 3,259 | 0 |
National Democratic Party of Namibia | 1,389 | 0 |
National Unity Democratic Organisation | 17,942 | 2 |
Rally of Democracy and Progress | 31,372 | 3 |
Republican Party of Namibia | 6,099 | 1 |
SWANU of Namibia | 6,354 | 1 |
SWAPO Party of Namibia | 715,026 | 77 |
United Democratic Front of Namibia | 18,945 | 2 |
United People’s Movement | 6,353 | 1 |
Workers Revolutionary Party | 13,328 | 2 |
TOTAL | 893,643 | 96 |
Registered Voters | 1,241,194 |
In summary SWAPO also won the National Assembly elections, taking 80.01 per cent of the vote or 77 out of the 92 seats.
Finally, it was indeed a heart-warming experience to watch as hundreds
of thousands of Namibians braced the heat of the sun and patiently
waited in long queues to cast their votes at various polling stations
across the country. Surely, Namibians from all walks of life and of
different age demonstrated their unwavering commitment to democracy.
The ECN expresses its appreciation, first to the leaders and supporters
of the different political parties for the generally peaceful political
environment which reigned before, during, and after the elections. Also
the results were accepted in the same spirit when the official
elections results were announced on 1 December 2014.
Second,
the great support that the ECN received from the Namibian Police and
the Government of the Republic of Namibia cannot go unnoticed. Had it
not been for the sacrifices of the Namibian Police as well as our
Polling Officials who tirelessly worked day and night, the success of
these elections would not have been a reality.
Third, the
financial support and the financing of the entire election budget that
the ECN received from the Government of the Republic of Namibia is
absolutely appreciated. The Government funded in its totality the
election budget of the elections.
Lastly and most
importantly as the ECN our thanks go to the publishers of the booklet,
Celebrate 25 Years of Democratic Elections: 1989-2014. They published
and distributed as a free supplement in Republikein, Namibian Sun, and
Allgemeine Zeitung the booklet in December 2014. In particularly our
sincere thanks and appreciation for the person who was responsible for
the conceptualization and marketing, namely Ms Carolin Guriras.
We as the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) do submit this word of
thanks in bold humility and do accept and receive this book in the same
spirit. I Thank You.