Re: Unfair and unlawful extension of polling time - Swakopmund

Dear Mr Kanime,

by and large the Local Authority Elections in Swakopmund were held in an orderly manner.

However we sincerely question the continuation of polling until 23h00 in the Meduletu Hall as well as Mahetago Community Centre Polling Stations.

According to our observer at the Mahetago Community Centre, voters kept streaming in, despite the fact that a police officer stood at the end of the line at 21h00 ! The last particular voter was marked, nevertheless people kept streaming towards the Mahetago Community Centre even well after 21h20 and were allowed to cast their vote i.e. upto 23h00!

Apparently the same happened in Meduletu, where a senior official of the Erongo Regional Council was heard to say that all registered voters should have the right to cast their vote. We sincerely question this intereference in the election legislation by this particular official, who to our knowledge is no official of the Election Directorate! Be this as it may, the law stipulates clearly that the last in the awaiting line should be indicated by placing a police officer at 21h00 at the end of the line. This was the procedure at the remaining polling stations. One could now argue that voters arriving after 21h00 at polling stations other than the abovementioned, were gravely discriminated against, because in Mahetago + Meduletu voters were arriving and allowed to cast their vote well after 21h20 !!

We strongly object to this most unfair practice and deem the votes cast at Meduletu as well as Mahetago for the 2 additional hours i.e. total 4 hours as unfair, illegal and discriminating towards the rest of the electorate and parties! We thus expect soonest response from your office, lest we have no other option but to seek legal advice.

Yours sincerely

M. d’Avignon

Chairperson - Swakopmund Residents Association