One of the most controversial accusations is contained in a statement submitted to the Police by Nudo Acting Secretary General Usiel Tjijenda.

BURNING QUESTIONS

In it, the Vice President of the Congress of Democrats (CoD), Nora Schimming-Chase, is alleged to have instigated the burning of the ballots after they were found by a worker of the Roads Contractor Company.

A flabbergasted Schimming-Chase said yesterday that after reading the remarks contained in the statement she had instructed her lawyer to take action against Tjijenda.

"I can't in all seriousness react to these contradictions," she told The Namibian.

The ECN yesterday filed papers with the High Court rebutting allegations made by the CoD and Republican Party (RP), that the November National Assembly election was flawed.

According to the ECN affidavit, forensic evidence suggests that that the pile of papers found burnt in a riverbed near Okahandja were not ballots.

The investigation is still continuing.

In addition, the man who claimed to have come across the ballots on November 25 while he was out "jogging" has now given three varying statements to the Police.

It now appears that he allegedly burnt one of the 21 ballots himself and then staged the burning of what was meant to look like more ballots.

In a third statement to the Police on December 23, Sadrag Mberirua admits to having received the papers from a RCC worker who saw them flying off the back of a truck while they were working on a stretch of road outside Okahandja, and not while jogging as he claimed in two of his earlier Police statements and to the media.

DICING WITH THE TRUTH

In his most recent testimony, Mberirua says he took the ballots to the Nudo offices where he encountered Tjijenda.

Tjijenda allegedly handed him matches and told him to return to the scene where the ballots were found and to burn them, saying it would strengthen the case of opposition parties which at the time were building a case to challenge the election results.

Tjijenda claimed this was an "instruction" from Schimming-Chase.

"He also advised me to collect many papers in the vicinity of the scene, put them together and set them on fire. This must be done to create the impression that more ballot papers were set on fire," reads the statement.

Mberirua says he was ordered to burn one of the found ballot papers halfway, and was promised legal protection for his actions.

He acknowledges not telling the Police that Tjijenda allegedly told him to set the ballots alight.

"The facts given were not the truth," Mberirua says in his third statement.

Mberirua claims to have been left alone at the scene to ensure that all the other papers he collected had burnt to ashes.

Tjijenda was pictured in The Namibian holding the burnt ballot at the scene the next day.

"I knew by that time that the scene and all that was reported to the media was not true and that the statement I made was false. I did that because I was promised a reward for that. I did not find burnt ballot papers. All I found on the scene was created," Mberirua alleges in his third statement.

NUDO FACTOR

In a first statement to the Police and to the media, Mberirua claimed to have reported his find of ballot papers while "jogging", to Nudo advisor Festus Muniazo at Okahandja and the pair of them returned to the scene where they picked up the ballots.

In a second, more extensive statement on November 29, Mberirua said that the ballots were used and that he, Muniazo and at least 15 other Nudo members returned to the scene to fetch the papers and take them to Nudo Town Councillor Agatha Handura's house.

They then reported the incident to the Police, nearly seven hours after the "discovery".

Muniazo's statement largely concurs with that of Mberirua, but he notes that on their return to the scene, it appeared that foliage had been burnt in the area.

Four statements by RCC workers are also contained in the ECN's affidavit.

BALLOT FLUTTER

They stated that while working on the road just outside Okahandja, ballot papers were seen fluttering from the back of a GRN truck.

One worker testifies that she collected more than 20 papers and handed them to Mberirua, who was working with them, in about the same area that he claims to have discovered them while out "jogging".

The RCC worker says the papers were definitely not burnt when she collected them and she was surprised to read in media reports that they had been.

In a second statement to the Police, Mberirua says after he finished work on the said day, he went to the Nudo offices where he met Tjijenda.

Tjijenda allegedly told him that when he went jogging again, he must take the turn-off to the Hodygos centre, where he would find ballot papers that he should take to the Police.

Mberirua testifies that Tjijenda claimed to him that Schimming-Chase was aware of the incident and would provide the necessary legal protection.

His second statement then reverts to what he said in the first - that he first fetched Muniazo before picking up the papers.

"I later began to worry and was afraid that this whole exercise would bring the Government into trouble, which I do not want as I am loyal to the Government," reads part of the testimony.

RIRUAKO ADVISES

He said he was advised by two of Chief Kuaima Riruako's advisors to make a press announcement about what happened, which he did on December 1.

When the media and the Police arrived on the scene the next day, Mberirua claims to have been forbidden from speaking to the Police without legal representation by Tjijenda and Schimming-Chase.

Tjijenda testified to the Police on December 6 that on his arrival at the Police station in the early hours of Friday, November 26, he met UDF Chief Justus Garoeb, who suggested he keep the ballot papers until the next day.

He denies having met Mberirua at all on the day the papers were found, and only arrived on the scene the next day.

In a statement given on January 24, Tjijenda changed his story, acknowledging that he was indeed in Okahandja on the day the papers were found, and that he met Mberirua at the Nudo offices.

He claims to have immediately phoned Schimming-Chase because she had requested opposition parties to report election irregularities to one another.

Tjijenda alleges that Schimming-Chase instructed him to burn the papers where they were found and offered Mberirua a reward.

Tjijenda said he assured Mberirua that the CoD would provide him with a lawyer and work, should he lose his as a result of his actions.

He said he dropped Mberirua at the scene, and did not return until the next day when the Police and media went there.

He further alleges that Schimming-Chase and RP Secretary General Carola Engelbrecht left several messages on his cell phone afterwards, but he did not respond.