ELECTORAL PROCESSES IN NAMIBIA
A PRESENTATION TO THE INWENT/NAMIBIA INSTITUTE FOR
DEMOCRACY
TRAINING COURSE
Measuring Democracy, Governance
and Human Rights
19 June 2008
By Graham Hopwood
Background to Namibia’s Democracy
• First democratic elections held in 1989 as part of
United Nations peace plan for Namibia
• PR system agreed as part of pre-independence
negotiations
• Easiest system to use during a transition phase
• Gave reassurance to smaller parties that they would
gain representation
Namibia’s Democratic System
Constitution agreed in 1990 includes:
• President with executive powers
• National Assembly – lower house
• National Council – upper house (house of review)
• 13 Regional Councils
• Local authorities (presently 48)
Democratic debates
• Whether to use PR for national parliamentary
elections?
• Which system is most appropriate for regional
councils?
• Whether to use PR or a FPTP ward system for local
authorities?
Four elections, three systems
• Presidential – Majoritarian
• National Assembly – PR with party lists
• Regional Council – First Past The Post
• Local Authority – PR with transition to ward system
Presidential elections
• Voters vote directly for the different candidates. The
candidate who receives the most votes is elected,
provided that candidate has a clear majority (50%
plus one) of the votes.
• If no candidate is elected with a more than 50% of
the votes in the first round, a subsequent election is
held between the two candidates with the highest
number of votes, until one candidate wins a clear
majority.
• Since the President received a clear majority in all
the previous elections in Namibia, a second round
has never happened.
National Assembly elections
• A PR system with party lists is used. Parties each
present a list of up to 72 candidates to the Electoral
Commission. The seats are divided among the
parties proportionally. Seats are allocated by
establishing the quota of votes required for one seat.
The quota is calculated by dividing all the votes cast
by the total number of seats in the National Assembly
(72). After all the seats have been allocated using
these quotas, the remaining seats are allocated to
the parties with the largest remainder.
Regional Council elections
• Candidates run in separate single member
constituencies. The candidate who won the highest
number of votes wins the seat for the specific
constituency. i.e. the “First Past The Post” (FPTP)
system.
• One candidate can win only 40 percent of the votes in
the constituency, but may still win the seat if there
were four other candidates who each won 15 percent
of the vote. If this is the pattern across a country, or
across a region or municipality, it can happen that a
party wins a majority of the seats, even though the
party did not win a majority of the votes.
Local Authority elections
• A PR system is used. Parties present a different
candidates' list for each local authority, with voters from
that municipality being able to choose between the
different parties.
• According to the Local Authority Act of 1992, only two
elections were to be held using this type of electoral
system. The 2003 local government elections were to be
conducted using a ward system. For each ward, only
one representative would be elected to the Local
Authority. This plan was dropped and the Act changed in
2002 to continue the PR system.
Arguments for PR at local level
• PR systems favour the inclusion of smaller parties.
• Voters were familiar with the PR party list system.
• The PR system is be cheaper to run.
• Since the residential pattern in Namibia has not
changed substantially since independence, it could not
be guaranteed that the candidates would not represent
particular racial or ethnic groups.
• A PR system could be used to legally guarantee fair
gender representation through legislation that makes it
compulsory to have a specific number of women on
the party lists.
Gender issues
• The 2005 SADC Summit set a target of achieving
50% women’s representation in political and
decision-making structures by 2015. The previous
target had been 30% by 2005.
• Namibia has only exceeded 30% in local
government. After the 2004 local elections, women
occupied 43 percent of council seats. This was
largely due to affirmative action measures, which
required parties to include a certain number of
women on their party lists.
• Despite the success of these measures, they have
not been introduced at the national level.
Electoral Commission
• Set up to direct, supervise and control elections in a
fair and impartial manner
• Has responsibility for:
- Voter registration, including preparation of voters
register
- Registration of political parties
- Elections – polls, counting and announcement of
results
• The Directorate of Elections is the administrative arm
of the Electoral Commission
How independent?
• Prospective commissioners have to apply after the
posts are advertised in two daily newspapers
• Shortlisted candidates are interviewed in public by a
court official appointed by the Chief Justice, a legal
practitioner nominated by the Law Society, and a
representative of the Ombudsman.
• The selection committee recommends eight
candidates to the President who chooses five.
• Commissioners serve for five years.
• The Director of Elections is chosen by the
Commission after it interviews five candidates and
recommends at least two candidates to the President
who makes the final choice.
Is it the system or the public?
• When interviews for the Electoral Commissioners took place in
2005, only a few members of the public turned up to observe.
• In a one-party dominant state, the pool of genuinely
independent people of good standing who can serve as
Electoral Commissioners is small
• The independence and calibre of the Elections Director is
crucial. Political appointments are easily manipulated.
• Presidential approval makes appointments of Commissioners
and Directors seem like they are political.
Voter registration
• A general registration of voters takes place every 10
years. Occasional supplementary registrations also
take place. Last general voter registration took place
in 2003.
• Would-be voters have to provide identification (birth
certificates, ID cards, passports, any legal document
with photograph or a sworn statement) before
receiving a voter registration card.
How accurate?
• Many Namibians do not have valid ID documents.
Hence, there has always been a heavily reliance on
sworn statements
• Two people who are also eligible to vote have to sign
a sworn statement for a prospective voter
• Up to a third of voters have used sworn statements
Problems with the voters register
IPPR analysis of the voters rolls in 1999 and 2003
found:
• Duplicate and multiple entries (lack of data cleaning
process)
• Inadequate and incomplete information
• Inaccurate data entry (spelling)
• Ghost voters (people who have died or left the
country)
Dealing with ghost voters
• The Registrar of Deaths in the Ministry of Home
Affairs is supposed to furnish the Elections
Directorate with a list of recent deaths and last known
addresses by the 15th of each month.
• Evidence available indicates that this does not
happen. Initially blame was put on the Ministry of
Home Affairs, but more recently the Elections
Directorate appears to be at fault for not using the
data the Ministry supplies in a timely manner.
• Staff shortages and technical difficulties are usually
blamed.
A mobile population
• The onus is on the voter to inform the Directorate of
Elections of any change of address. As a result, this
hardly ever happens.
• Some duplicate names are on the voters register
because people who have moved simply re-register
during a supplementary registration period under
their new address.
• As a whole the number of people casting tendered
votes increases, as the voters register becomes more
inaccurate as to their permanent addresses.
Tendered votes
• Unemployment is at 35% in Namibia. Namibians
move in search of jobs.
• As a result the Electoral Act allows citizens to vote in
constituencies where they are not registered as
residing. These are called tendered votes.
• Tendered votes are counted in the constituencies
where they were cast.
• The system has caused confusion and there have
been calls for reform.
Possible remedies
• Requiring would-be voters to give more biographical
information (gender, photograph) to be included on
voters card as well.
• Using other data to check and verify the voters
register e.g.census data, lists of water and electricity
clients, ratepayers, and other surveys.
• Training of staff in recording and spelling protocols
• Use of specialist software to detect double entries
and other errors
• Phase out sworn statements (delivery of ID
documents has to be efficient)
Counting and announcing
• After the close of the poll, ballot boxes are sealed by
the presiding officer and sent to the returning officer.
The returning officer and electoral staff count the
votes in the presence of the party agents.
• The returning officer forwards the results to the
Electoral Commission, which announces the results
and ensures they are published in the Gazette. All
the documentation is sealed by the returning officer
and forwarded to the Director.
Conflict resolution
• Election petitions are heard by the High Court and
petitions must be submitted within 30 days of the
announcement of the result. The decision of the
Court must be rendered with 60 days of the
registration of the petition. Appeals may be lodged
with the Supreme Court.
• Although the Electoral Commission makes provision
for handling disputes, it cannot be forced to do so
and ultimately the courts are the only sure recourse
for complainants. Different ways of resolving disputes
are needed as reverting to the courts is costly and
time-consuming.
Potential for electoral fraud
Little evidence of electoral fraud during Namibian
elections since 1990. However, weaknesses remain,
which can be exploited for fraudulent reasons,
principally:
• Use of sworn statements
• Confusion over tendered vote system
• Inaccuracies in voters register
[Reform of Electoral Act has been proposed but slow-
tracked since 2005]
Where does this leave us?
• Time is running short to make effective electoral reforms (18
months to the next national election, possibly less for local and
regional elections)
• The voters register for the 2009 elections will be based on the
2003 register, which contained errors, duplications, and was
heavily (over 30%) based on people who had registered with
sworn statements.
• The dust of the 2005 court case, brought by several opposition
parties, has not settled. The issues that caused the High Court
to order a recount have not been addressed.
• The Electoral Commission and the incoming Director of
Elections will have to demonstrate their leadership in the
coming months to ensure the credibility of the 2009 elections
will not be undermined by claims of incompetence and fraud.
