All quiet on the elections front

IN true Namibian fashion, political parties are keeping the preparations for the elections close to their chests, with only the odd detail seeping through, such as that the Elections Director failed to make the preliminary list for Swapo.

It is barely two months before three nation-wide elections take place in November and the parties are yet to get out of the starting blocks while quietly dealing with crunch politics of the belly. The jostling for positions is more visible in Swapo, where many believe the chances of making it to Parliament are high.Fewer fights are being reported among the ranks of opposition parties.The stakes there are low.Phillemon Kanime, the Director of Elections, last week denied he had contested a parliamentary candidate slot for the ruling party, something which could raise questions about his impartiality in running the forthcoming elections.Kanime said he was baffled that “someone” had asked him earlier this month about an attempt to become a parliamentary candidate.”That’s not true,” he said.Several of his comrades in the Khomas Region have confirmed to The Namibian that Kanime lost to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Regional, Local Government, Erastus Negonga, in Windhoek West.Negonga also denied he took part in the race, though Swapo sources say he lost at the penultimate hurdle when the Khomas Region picked five people to forward to the party’s Politburo for vetting.The five include former ambassadors Nicky Nashandi and Shapua Kaukungua, former Windhoek municipality councillor Libereki Thlabanello and a liberation activist of the 1980s, Mbapeua Muvangua.Two candidates for the region will eventually be forwarded to the party’s electoral convention in early October just ahead of the Elections Commission deadline for the parties to submit their lists of up to 72 potential lawmakers.On Tuesday, the DTA and the Congress of Democrats were discussing their lists.But none of the parties have so far released their political programmes or manifestos, which would leave the voters with little time to glean their election promises.Swapo appears to be the only party that has hit the campaign trail.Opposition parties say a lack of resources is hampering them, but some observers point to deep seated organisational troubles to get work off the ground.According to information released last week by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), opposition parties in Namibia were listed as the “least trusted institutions”.The level of trust, dropped for most other public institutions but the public reported that their belief in the opposition parties dropped by half.The trend was the same in other southern African countries where the same research, titled Afrobarometer, is conducted every year.Henk Mudge, leader of the Republican Party (RP), a former DTA affiliate, said they had independently found that people across the country have become despondent.Asked why his party had not started with the campaign, Mudge said: “Money, money, money.”The RP is to hold its congress on September 18.This will leave them fewer than 20 days to meet various elections deadlines.Kanime said October 6 will be the closing date for independent candidates to register with the Elections Commission, while political parties are expected to submit their lists of National Assembly, presidential and regional council candidates by October 8.By then several dates, including the official dates of the elections, would have been published in the Government gazettes.The jostling for positions is more visible in Swapo, where many believe the chances of making it to Parliament are high.Fewer fights are being reported among the ranks of opposition parties.The stakes there are low.Phillemon Kanime, the Director of Elections, last week denied he had contested a parliamentary candidate slot for the ruling party, something which could raise questions about his impartiality in running the forthcoming elections.Kanime said he was baffled that “someone” had asked him earlier this month about an attempt to become a parliamentary candidate.”That’s not true,” he said.Several of his comrades in the Khomas Region have confirmed to The Namibian that Kanime lost to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Regional, Local Government, Erastus Negonga, in Windhoek West.Negonga also denied he took part in the race, though Swapo sources say he lost at the penultimate hurdle when the Khomas Region picked five people to forward to the party’s Politburo for vetting.The five include former ambassadors Nicky Nashandi and Shapua Kaukungua, former Windhoek municipality councillor Libereki Thlabanello and a liberation activist of the 1980s, Mbapeua Muvangua.Two candidates for the region will eventually be forwarded to the party’s electoral convention in early October just ahead of the Elections Commission deadline for the parties to submit their lists of up to 72 potential lawmakers.On Tuesday, the DTA and the Congress of Democrats were discussing their lists.But none of the parties have so far released their political programmes or manifestos, which would leave the voters with little time to glean their election promises.Swapo appears to be the only party that has hit the campaign trail.Opposition parties say a lack of resources is hampering them, but some observers point to deep seated organisational troubles to get work off the ground.According to information released last week by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR), opposition parties in Namibia were listed as the “least trusted institutions”.The level of trust, dropped for most other public institutions but the public reported that their belief in the opposition parties dropped by half.The trend was the same in other southern African countries where the same research, titled Afrobarometer, is conducted every year.Henk Mudge, leader of the Republican Party (RP), a former DTA affiliate, said they had independently found that people across the country have become despondent.Asked why his party had not started with the campaign, Mudge said: “Money, money, money.”The RP is to hold its congress on September 18.This will leave them fewer than 20 days to meet various elections deadlines.Kanime said October 6 will be the closing date for independent candidates to register with the Elections Commission, while political parties are expected to submit their lists of National Assembly, presidential and regional council candidates by October 8.By then several dates, including the official dates of the elections, would have been published in the Government gazettes.