Affirmative Repositioning leader Dr Job Amupanda has written to the Electoral Commission to request for a national dialogue on the logic of voter registration for Presidential and National Assembly Elections.
Amupanda also is questioning the voters’ registration regime in Namibia and its impacts on constitutional rights provided in Article 17.
In a letter dated 1 July, Dr Amupanda said that the logic of introducing and limiting voters’ registration to unreasonable periods is problematic in many respects.
He questioned why a Namibian citizen cannot vote with only their identity documents if the only requirement to enjoying the constitutional right to vote is Namibian citizenship and being above the age of 18.
With regards to this and after analysing the country’s electoral culture, the activist says, he called for the dialogue that should be aimed at systematic reforms to bring about a new political system.
He said that the Electoral Act is unconstitutional in so far as it does not permit individual citizens to be elected to the National Assembly outside the political party system.
“Why is the identification document not sufficient enough, when being identified as an eligible voter?”
He said that should the dialogue and engagement with ECN not yield satisfactory results, he would have to approach the court.
He also added that the ECN has confirmed receiving the letter and that they would soon respond to it.
