Africa-Press – Namibia. <\/strong><\/span>For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. Citizenship, from which the word citizen is derived, refers to a legal status and relation between an individual and a state that entails specific legal rights and duties.<\/p>\nSovereignty is a political concept that refers to supreme authority. In a neo-liberal democracy like Namibia, sovereign power rests with the people, and is exercised<\/p>\n
through representative bodies such as Parliament. The word absolute, as an adjective, refers to a value that is not qualified, limited or that cannot, in any way, be diminished \u2013 and a norm refers to a standard or<\/p>\n
principle of right action binding upon the members of a group and serving to guide, control or regulate proper and acceptable behaviour, according to the Merriam Webster online dictionary.<\/p>\n
As we are preparing for the November 2024 Presidential and National Assembly Elections, it is perhaps important to revisit some of these concepts in the Namibian context.<\/p>\n
It is of paramount importance to remember that our rights-based constitution is hailed as one of the best in the world \u2013 at least as far as political rights are concerned. In short, political rights refer to freedom of speech, freedom of political association, etc.<\/p>\n
Article 1 (2), under Chapter 1 of the Namibian Constitution, states: \u201cAll power shall vest in the people of Namibia, who shall exercise their sovereignty through the democratic institutions of the State\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is important to note that the first two words in this paragraph are \u201call power\u201d, and this must be read together with the next five words \u201cshall vest in the people\u201d.<\/p>\n
Therefore, the sovereignty of the citizens hinges on these seven words in our supreme law, the Constitution of the Republic of Namibia. Again, the supremacy of the Constitution means no one and no law is above the Constitution.<\/p>\n
It, therefore, follows that the sovereignty of the people, as guaranteed in the Constitution, simply means no one is above the people and the only proviso here is that this refers to the people, as a collective.<\/p>\n
The second part of this constitutional provision reads: \u201c…who shall exercise their sovereignty through the democratic institutions of the State….\u201d<\/p>\n
This means when the citizens cast their vote to elect their leaders, they would be \u201c…exercising their sovereignty through the democratic institutions of the State….\u201d<\/p>\n
In the simplest of terms, that means the people temporarily surrender or delegate their sovereignty to their elected leaders on the basis of a \u201cborrowed\u201d mandate.<\/p>\n
In our democratic dispensation, political campaigning\/electioneering is basically about two things. The ruling party will be telling the people: \u201cWe have<\/p>\n
put the mandate that we borrowed from you to good use, so give us five more years\u201d. The opposition parties will be saying to the people: \u201cThe mandate you gave to the<\/p>\n
ruling party five years ago was not put to good use; give that mandate to us\u201d. I should hasten to add that there is no value judgement attached to these two hypothetical positions; except for the sake of clarifying a<\/p>\n
point. The people\u2019s sacred sovereignty finds concrete expression in the secrecy of the ballot. As a collective, the people are sovereign, but that sovereignty is exercised privately in a ballot booth by citizens as single individual voters. The limitation to the right to vote can, for example, come about because of the<\/p>\n
dichotomy\/gap between \u2018formal citizenship\u2019 and \u2018substantive citizenship\u2019. In terms of our Constitution and the relevant Act of Parliament, we are all \u2018formal citizens\u2019.<\/p>\n
However, we are not all \u2018substantive citizens\u2019. \u2018Substantive citizens\u2019 are those citizens who are well-informed and empowered to claim the rights they are entitled to as \u2018formal citizens\u2019.<\/p>\n
Due to the lack of education and the English language handicap, the majority of our citizens may have a \u2018capability deficit\u2019, and can therefore not effectively claim their rights \u2013 including the right to vote and to hold their elected leaders to account.<\/p>\n
It is this gap between \u2018formal citizenship\u2019 and \u2018substantive citizenship\u2019 that the ECN\u2019s voter and civic education officers, as well as the other stakeholders, including political parties, need to fill.<\/p>\n
However, it is imperative that the ECN\u2019s voter and civic education officers carry out their duties in a non-partisan manner. The dichotomy between \u2018formal citizenship\u2019 and \u2018substantive citizenship\u2019 is not the only contributing factor to voter apathy.<\/p>\n
There are other factors at play too. We, therefore, need all hands on deck to motivate our people to exercise their democratic right to vote. The American social critic, George Carlin, once said: \u201cIf you do not vote, you lose the right to complain\u201d.<\/p>\n
*Gerson Uaripi Tjihenuna is a commissioner of elections. However, the views expressed here are his own and not those of ECN.<\/p>\n
Source: neweralive<\/b><\/p>\n
For More News And Analysis About Namibia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Gerson Uaripi Tjihenuna Africa-Press – Namibia. For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. Citizenship, from which the word citizen is derived, refers to a legal status and relation between an individual and a state that entails specific legal rights and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":68002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[234,236,233],"class_list":["post-68004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-files","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-namibia","tag-namibia"],"yoast_head":"\n
The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm - Namibia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Namibia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T16:37:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-05-03T17:49:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"462\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-03T16:37:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-03T17:49:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\"},\"wordCount\":816,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"africa press\",\"Africa Press-Namibia\",\"namibia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"files\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\",\"name\":\"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm - Namibia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-05-03T16:37:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-05-03T17:49:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":462,\"caption\":\"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/\",\"name\":\"Namibia\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm - Namibia","description":"For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm","og_description":"For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm","og_site_name":"Namibia","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2024-05-03T16:37:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-05-03T17:49:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":462,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm","datePublished":"2024-05-03T16:37:15+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-03T17:49:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm"},"wordCount":816,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg","keywords":["africa press","Africa Press-Namibia","namibia"],"articleSection":["all news","files"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm","name":"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm - Namibia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg","datePublished":"2024-05-03T16:37:15+00:00","dateModified":"2024-05-03T17:49:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"For the sake of clarity, it is perhaps important to first break down the key concepts that are flagged in this heading. ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nambia\/sites\/29\/2024\/05\/sm_1714745870.919315.jpg","width":720,"height":462,"caption":"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/all-news\/the-citizens-sovereignty-an-absolute-norm#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The citizens\u2019 sovereignty an absolute norm"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/","name":"Namibia","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/namibia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}