Africa-Press – Namibia. LANDLESS People’s Movement (LPM) spokesperson Eneas Emvula said the head of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), Theo Mujoro, must find the ECN’s stolen laptops or resign.
The Namibian reported yesterday that 117 out of 137 laptops belonging to the ECN were stolen from the ECN head office in Windhoek.
Mujoro registered a case of theft at the Windhoek Police Station earlier this month.
Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Emvula said the credibility of the ECN in dealing with sensitive election material in a safe, transparent and accountable manner has become more questionable than the time laptops were confirmed to have been illegally removed and pawned by one of its officials.
“Theo Mujoro must account and find those materials or go home,” Emvula said.
If an institution of such stature has no control over election material that is critical in the determination of the future of this country and protection of its integrity, then the ECN can never claim to be transparent and comply with the provisions under the Electoral Act 5, 2014, Emvula said.
He accused Mujoro of having twice proven to be incompetent in ensuring of the integrity of the ECN.
“That on its own, already poses an eminent [sic] danger to national security come the 2024 presidential and National Assembly elections,” he said.
According to Emvula, LPM as a political party with the mandate of oversight on national matters, will not shy away from addressing the ECN on the way it conducts and maintains its safety operations of sensitive election material.
Responding to Emvula’s call for his resignation, Mujoro said “nonsense, I am not going anywhere”.
Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) secretary general Manuel Ngaringombe said the laptops are meant to store important information on previous elections, minutes of public liaison committee meetings and the database of registered voters.
“Missing this information will give a doubt to electorates whether the date and other work of the ECN are really credible. We hope these laptops do not have important information that compromises the credibility of elections in 2024/2025,” Ngaringobe said.
He said the PDM hopes the ECN and law enforcement agencies will hold the culprits accountable and keep the stakeholders informed of any impact caused by the theft of the laptops.
The laptops were allegedly stolen between November 2020 and early this month when the missing laptops were noted.
“A case has been registered with the Namibian Police and the matter is now subject to a criminal investigation,” Mujoro said on Wednesday.
This is not the first time laptops have gone missing from the ECN. In 2019, the ECN accused its former technical director, Milton Louw, of stealing five laptops from the commission and trying to sell them at a pawnshop in Windhoek.
In 2017, two electoral voting machines (EVMs) went missing after they were given to Swapo to use at the party’s elders’ council congress.
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