Namibia: Elections Body Admits Walvis Constituencies Mash-Up

Theo Mujoro, chief electoral officer of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), says the Erongo region was never affected by the 2014 boundary delimitation exercise by the Boundary Delimitation Commission.

This has resulted in the boundaries between the Walvis Bay Urban and Walvis Bay Rural constituencies not reflecting under the boundaries outlined in Proclamation No. 25 of 8 August 2013, in the Government Gazette No. 5261, according to which the delimitation commission physically effected extensive changes to the boundaries of most regions and constituencies.

Mujoro said this in response to the two constituencies’ councillors, John Nangolo and Knowledge Ipinge, who, during the supplementary voters’ registration for the 2020 regional council and local authority elections in September discovered over 1 200 voters from the urban constituency have been incorrectly registered in the rural constituency since 2014.

In a letter to the two councillors, seen by The Namibian, Mujoro admitted this was an error which he attributed to misunderstandings resulting in eligible voters erroneously registered since 2014.

“The confusion around the boundary of the two constituencies came as a result of the main street (e.g. Kabeljou Street), as pointed out in your letter, which most of the residents residing in that location assumed to be the boundary without any means of verification. This might have also contributed towards inappropriate interpretation of the boundary maps by assigned registration officials at the time,” said Mujoro.

He said a stakeholders’ consultative meeting was planned with the affected regions to clarify and verify the physical boundaries which is the norm when conducting any election.

However, this could not happen in the local authority areas of Arandis, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay, as a result of the mandatory travel ban at the time.

Mujoro said the situation was mitigated after discussions between his team and the affected stakeholders physically verified that the boundaries form part of Walvis Bay Urban constituency.

“This has resulted in a special team to be constituted to operate a new registration point to register the affected eligible voters. Equally, a team of voter education officers was also constituted to inform and encourage the affected voters to change their voters’ cards to Walvis Bay Urban in compliance with the boundary maps at the newly established registration point,” said Mujoro.

His letter does not clearly say what would happen to the affected voters from Walvis Bay Urban constituency who could not make it on time to the registration points to change to the correct constituency.

The ECN’s response has left the two councillors with more questions than answers.

“It is not clear for us, because when you look at the boundaries themselves, the line, according to the GPS, is cutting between houses and one cannot differentiate which house is on the rural or urban side. They are not clearly separated by a street like in other instances,” Nangolo said.

Urban constituency councillors said should the issue be allowed to remain, people with incorrect cards will participate in the elections unlawfully by voting in an area they don’t reside in.

“The law is very clear that one must vote in the constituency you have resided in for more than a year. If you stay at Walvis Bay Urban you cannot vote in the rural constituency,” Ipinge said.

According to an ECN map, affected voters reside in the following streets: Kabeljou Street, Orange Roughy Street, Dolfyn Crescent, Harder Crescent, Pluto Street, Anchovy Crescent, Kingklip Street, Marlyn Crescent, Mola Mola Crescent, Remora Street, Frankie Abraham Street, Batfish Street, Luanda Street and Harare Street.

This also includes residents of the National Housing Enterprise houses near the road to Swakopmund.

In their letter to the ECN, dated 15 September, the two councillors requested for an immediate extension of the registration period by seven days to give the affected voters a chance to lawfully register in the constituency they reside in.