Wounded NEFF takes ECN fight to High Court
After the Electoral Court tossed out an application regarding its deregistration by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) has taken its fight to the High Court through an urgent application filed yesterday.
Lawyer Kadhila Amoomo gave notice of the party’s motion to have the ECN’s decision reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside.
This after judges Hosea Angula, Orben Sibeya and Beatrix de Jager backed ECN's arguments that the Electoral Court does not have the jurisdiction to decide on this issue, that the Electoral Court can only decide on electoral issues and that no electoral issues stemmed from the commission’s decision to deregister the party.
The issue dates back to 17 June when the ECN deregistered NEFF as a political party, despite a notice that it would be given an extension until 30 June to provide its financial statements, according to NEFF's claims.
The party also argued that it was not given the chance to state its side of the case before it was deregistered. The ECN denied that it granted NEFF an extension.
NEFF was deregistered alongside the Christian Democratic Voice for failing to lodge its audited financial statements for the period of 2022/2023 and failing to publish 2020/2021 and 2021/2022’s abridged versions of audited financial statements in two daily newspapers circulating throughout Namibia, as is required by law.
Not an electoral issue
In the judgment, the full bench found that NEFF could not prove that irreparable damage would be caused if the Electoral Court did not issue an interim interdict in the matter. "It is required of [NEFF] to provide facts with sufficient particularity to show that there will be irreparable harm if the conduct complained of is not stopped," it read.
The judges also explained that an 'election application' is "clear and self-explanatory".
"Such an application must be a 'complaint' about the violation of the [Electoral Act]. The application must not be capable of being erroneously accepted as an application in terms of civil proceedings,” it read.
"The legislature created the Electoral Court as a specialised court to deal with electoral issues. I am of the considered view that the refusal by the ECN to share the legal opinion which [NEFF] is seeking to be made available to it is not an electoral issue... and does not qualify to be classified as an ‘electoral issue’ or part of ‘an electoral process’,” Angula said in the ruling.
“It follows thus that this court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate on whether the ECN is in law entitled to refuse to share its legal opinion with [NEFF]. That is a matter that falls outside the circumference of the powers imbued on this court by the Act.”
‘Time is of the essence’
ECN's spokesperson De Wet Siluka maintained that the ruling will have no impact on Namibians' view of the ECN. "We just provided the law and we have merit to deregister the party," he said.
However, Amoomo believes that the issue is time-bound. "We believe that time is of the essence, so we have already approached the High Court and hope to have the case in court sometime next week," he said.
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Lawyer Kadhila Amoomo gave notice of the party’s motion to have the ECN’s decision reviewed, declared unlawful and set aside.
This after judges Hosea Angula, Orben Sibeya and Beatrix de Jager backed ECN's arguments that the Electoral Court does not have the jurisdiction to decide on this issue, that the Electoral Court can only decide on electoral issues and that no electoral issues stemmed from the commission’s decision to deregister the party.
The issue dates back to 17 June when the ECN deregistered NEFF as a political party, despite a notice that it would be given an extension until 30 June to provide its financial statements, according to NEFF's claims.
The party also argued that it was not given the chance to state its side of the case before it was deregistered. The ECN denied that it granted NEFF an extension.
NEFF was deregistered alongside the Christian Democratic Voice for failing to lodge its audited financial statements for the period of 2022/2023 and failing to publish 2020/2021 and 2021/2022’s abridged versions of audited financial statements in two daily newspapers circulating throughout Namibia, as is required by law.
Not an electoral issue
In the judgment, the full bench found that NEFF could not prove that irreparable damage would be caused if the Electoral Court did not issue an interim interdict in the matter. "It is required of [NEFF] to provide facts with sufficient particularity to show that there will be irreparable harm if the conduct complained of is not stopped," it read.
The judges also explained that an 'election application' is "clear and self-explanatory".
"Such an application must be a 'complaint' about the violation of the [Electoral Act]. The application must not be capable of being erroneously accepted as an application in terms of civil proceedings,” it read.
"The legislature created the Electoral Court as a specialised court to deal with electoral issues. I am of the considered view that the refusal by the ECN to share the legal opinion which [NEFF] is seeking to be made available to it is not an electoral issue... and does not qualify to be classified as an ‘electoral issue’ or part of ‘an electoral process’,” Angula said in the ruling.
“It follows thus that this court lacks jurisdiction to adjudicate on whether the ECN is in law entitled to refuse to share its legal opinion with [NEFF]. That is a matter that falls outside the circumference of the powers imbued on this court by the Act.”
‘Time is of the essence’
ECN's spokesperson De Wet Siluka maintained that the ruling will have no impact on Namibians' view of the ECN. "We just provided the law and we have merit to deregister the party," he said.
However, Amoomo believes that the issue is time-bound. "We believe that time is of the essence, so we have already approached the High Court and hope to have the case in court sometime next week," he said.
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