{"id":17640,"date":"2014-12-01T01:32:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-01T01:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/amb-ndangiza-commends-namibia-elections-while\/"},"modified":"2014-12-01T01:35:13","modified_gmt":"2014-12-01T01:35:13","slug":"amb-ndangiza-commends-namibia-elections-while","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/amb-ndangiza-commends-namibia-elections-while\/","title":{"rendered":"Amb. Ndangiza commends Namibia Elections while NEFF shouts down SA minister"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ALTERCATION:<\/figure>\n

{The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) headed by Ambassador Fatuma Ndangiza from Rwanda has commended Namibia\u2019s general Elections saying that the political environment was generally peaceful and calm.}<\/p>\n

Speaking to media Ambassador Ndangiza says \u201cThe AUEOM congratulates Namibia for taking an innovative and bold step in adopting the use of electronic voting machines in the 2014 elections,\u201d <\/p>\n

Ndangiza said the elections were conducted in a manner that allowed Namibians to express their will freely in a credible and transparent manner.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) caused a stir yesterday, when they accused South African International Relations and Cooperation Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane of lying about Namibia\u2019s general elections being free and fair.<\/p>\n

Nkoana-Mashabane is heading the SADC Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM) to Namibia, which observed Friday\u2019s National Assembly and Presidential elections.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are lying. You are contradicting yourself. The elections were not free and fair. Tell the truth,\u201d NEFF leaders shouted, while Nkoana-Mashabane read her speech.<\/p>\n

The NEFF leaders were later escorted off the premises.<\/p>\n

Nkoana-Mashabane was presenting her preliminary findings on the elections. She said that prior to the polls a number of concerns were raised.<\/p>\n

These include the alleged used of public resources, resulting in an unfair advantage to the ruling party, and the use of electronic voting machines (EVM) without a verifiable paper trail.<\/p>\n

She said most of the concerns were resolved professionally in an all inclusive manner by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and the relevant stakeholders involved.<\/p>\n

Nkoana-Mashabane said the pre-election phase was generally peaceful.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few isolated incidents of intimidation and violence. However these were dealt with adequately by law-enforcement agents,\u201d she said. She said the ECN had created a conducive environment, demonstrated by its readiness and a state of preparedness for the polls. \u201c<\/p>\n

She said on voting day, the observers had seen polling stations generally opening on time, there were some delays.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe delays at a number of polling stations were generally due to polling officials\u2019 lack of clarity on the use of the EVMs,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Nkoana-Mashabane made a number of recommendations and called on the ECN and other stakeholders to intensify civic and voter education, as well as to encourage local observers to play a greater role in the election process.<\/p>\n

She also called on the ECN to provide a special voting day for police officers, soldiers and other essential workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe urge the people of Namibia and all leaders of political parties to accept the outcome of the Presidential and National Assembly elections,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Source:{{ Namibian Sun}}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{The African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM) headed by Ambassador Fatuma Ndangiza from Rwanda has commended Namibia\u2019s general Elections saying that the political environment was generally peaceful and calm.} Speaking to media Ambassador Ndangiza says \u201cThe AUEOM congratulates Namibia for taking an innovative and bold step in adopting the use of electronic voting machines in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2000055249,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[75],"byline":[334],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-17640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-homenews","byline-igihe-reporter"],"bylines":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":334,"name":"IGIHE Reporter","slug":"igihe-reporter","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":{"id":2000055249,"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17640.jpg","alt":"","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","width":0,"height":0,"sizes":{"thumbnail":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"medium_large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"large":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17640.jpg","width":1,"height":1},"full":{"url":"https:\/\/en-images.igihe.com\/IMG\/logo\/arton17640.jpg","width":0,"height":0}}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2000055249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17640"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=17640"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=17640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}