Battle lines harden in CoD

SENIOR members of the Congress of Democrats yesterday threw down the gauntlet: they challenged incumbent president Ben Ulenga group to declare hotly disputed party election results null and void if he has the interests of the party at heart.

Ulenga, re-elected under controversial circumstances, has been given 14 days to respond to the concerns of those now dubbed the rebel group, which includes senior members of the party, among them three parliamentarians. The party is embroiled in its most serious crisis since it was formed eight years ago.Well over 100 delegates, including some of the CoD’s most prominent politicians, walked out of this past weekend’s extraordinary congress.Those who walked out also included representatives from 10 of the party’s 15 organisational regions.”We give Ben Ulenga 14 working days from today to react to our grievances, since we are democrats and we will not resign from CoD,” Ignatius Shixwameni, the leader of the group, told a press conference held at the Blue Room at the parliament building.”After the given time frame we will consult again and inform the public about our decisions.”During an NBC interview yesterday morning, Ulenga, speaking ahead of the rebel press conference, vowed that he would resign if allegations about the controversial election process could be proven true by a neutral group of people.Following yesterday’s press conference the rift between the Democrats is widening, with both camps adopting hardline positions.Ulenga narrowly gained re-election by 14 votes against Shixwameni at the disputed election at Keetmanshoop.In the same NBC programme yesterday morning Shixwameni, who was interviewed before Ulenga, accused “Ben Ulenga and his two women”, for adding the names of other CoD members who only had observer status to the list of accredited delegates who had the right to vote.Shixwameni and his walkout group, which include top CoD cadres like former vice president Nora Schimming-Chase, former secretary general Kala Gertze, Windhoek town councillor Herbert Schultz and Hetty Rose-Junius, declared the weekend’s CoD leadership elections “null and void” at a press briefing, which drew a large group of party members, also from the Ulenga group.The group has formed a committee with sub-committees in those 10 regions, whose delegates, altogether 154 of 309 officially recognised delegates, had walked out.”We demand the elections for the leadership positions be declared null and void, that a proper audit of the lists of delegates be done and that those who ran the CoD head office until the congress remain in charge,” Shixwameni demanded.Shixwameni, Rose-Junius, Gertze and Schimming-Chase hurled serious accusations at Ulenga, his wife Nambata and Rosa Namises, whom they claimed had torn up the official list of Khomas Region delegates, adding the names of members with observer status, who “rocked up at the congress” allegedly sent there by the Ulenga group.”These observers were suddenly made delegates and a new list was drawn up.We have videotaped all of this, the evidence is there,” Shixwameni and Schimming-Chase charged.All in all 30 such “observers” were illegally turned into delegates by Namises and Mrs Ulenga, the rebel CoD faction alleged, making the whole voting process invalid.”I could have won the presidential election, but that is not the point,” Shixwameni said.”It is about the correct procedures, which the National Executive Committee had agreed on and the duly registered delegates at Keetmanshoop.We do not recognise any elected leadership, because 30 of those votes were from observers instead of the delegates.We have proof of the authentic and official lists of delegates and of those who were suddenly elevated to the status of delegate,” Shixwameni added.He alleged that Ulenga supporters offered bribes and party positions to these new “delegates” to vote in Ulenga’s favour.The group then told the media that CoD members could testify how Ulenga’s wife and Namises added names of the pro-Ulenga camp to the lists of delegates from regions where the full number did not attend.The Oranjemund CoD branch had three delegates on the official list who could not attend the extraordinary congress.Shixwameni yesterday said the CoD branch chairperson for Oranjemund was phoned by Mrs Ulenga and Namises, who allegedly informed him they would put three names from the pro-Ulenga group on the Oranjemund list of delegates.”The Oranjemund chairperson refused and said the list could not be altered, but Mrs Ulenga instructed him to do so, although the three new names were not from the Oranjemund constituency.Ben Ulenga then called that person giving the same instructions as his wife, but our Oranjemund member refused to be part of the fraud,” Shixwameni said.The same was done with other regions, he claimed.He gave a run-down of the delegates who walked out: Khomas (28 of 44 delegates), four of Erongo, six of 11 Kunene South delegates, one of Kunene North, six of eight Young Democrats, seven of 23 from Caprivi, nine of 11 from Omaheke, 22 from Hardap, all delegates of Oshikoto South, all from Kavango and Karas and nine from Otjozondjupa.The entire delegation of Oshikoto North remained in the hall after the walkout.The party is embroiled in its most serious crisis since it was formed eight years ago.Well over 100 delegates, including some of the CoD’s most prominent politicians, walked out of this past weekend’s extraordinary congress.Those who walked out also included representatives from 10 of the party’s 15 organisational regions.”We give Ben Ulenga 14 working days from today to react to our grievances, since we are democrats and we will not resign from CoD,” Ignatius Shixwameni, the leader of the group, told a press conference held at the Blue Room at the parliament building.”After the given time frame we will consult again and inform the public about our decisions.”During an NBC interview yesterday morning, Ulenga, speaking ahead of the rebel press conference, vowed that he would resign if allegations about the controversial election process could be proven true by a neutral group of people.Following yesterday’s press conference the rift between the Democrats is widening, with both camps adopting hardline positions. Ulenga narrowly gained re-election by 14 votes against Shixwameni at the disputed election at Keetmanshoop.In the same NBC programme yesterday morning Shixwameni, who was interviewed before Ulenga, accused “Ben Ulenga and his two women”, for adding the names of other CoD members who only had observer status to the list of accredited delegates who had the right to vote.Shixwameni and his walkout group, which include top CoD cadres like former vice president Nora Schimming-Chase, former secretary general Kala Gertze, Windhoek town councillor Herbert Schultz and Hetty Rose-Junius, declared the weekend’s CoD leadership elections “null and void” at a press briefing, which drew a large group of party members, also from the Ulenga group.The group has formed a committee with sub-committees in those 10 regions, whose delegates, altogether 154 of 309 officially recognised delegates, had walked out.”We demand the elections for the leadership positions be declared null and void, that a proper audit of the lists of delegates be done and that those who ran the CoD head office until the congress remain in charge,” Shixwameni demanded.Shixwameni, Rose-Junius, Gertze and Schimming-Chase hurled serious accusations at Ulenga, his wife Nambata and Rosa Namises, whom they claimed had torn up the official list of Khomas Region delegates, adding the names of members with observer status, who “rocked up at the congress” allegedly sent there by the Ulenga group.”These observers were suddenly made delegates and a new list was drawn up.We have videotaped all of this, the evidence is there,” Shixwameni and Schimming-Chase charged.All in all 30 such “observers” were illegally turned into delegates by Namises and Mrs Ulenga, the rebel CoD faction alleged, making the whole voting process invalid.”I could have won the presidential election, but that is not the point,” Shixwameni sa
id.”It is about the correct procedures, which the National Executive Committee had agreed on and the duly registered delegates at Keetmanshoop.We do not recognise any elected leadership, because 30 of those votes were from observers instead of the delegates.We have proof of the authentic and official lists of delegates and of those who were suddenly elevated to the status of delegate,” Shixwameni added.He alleged that Ulenga supporters offered bribes and party positions to these new “delegates” to vote in Ulenga’s favour.The group then told the media that CoD members could testify how Ulenga’s wife and Namises added names of the pro-Ulenga camp to the lists of delegates from regions where the full number did not attend.The Oranjemund CoD branch had three delegates on the official list who could not attend the extraordinary congress.Shixwameni yesterday said the CoD branch chairperson for Oranjemund was phoned by Mrs Ulenga and Namises, who allegedly informed him they would put three names from the pro-Ulenga group on the Oranjemund list of delegates.”The Oranjemund chairperson refused and said the list could not be altered, but Mrs Ulenga instructed him to do so, although the three new names were not from the Oranjemund constituency.Ben Ulenga then called that person giving the same instructions as his wife, but our Oranjemund member refused to be part of the fraud,” Shixwameni said.The same was done with other regions, he claimed.He gave a run-down of the delegates who walked out: Khomas (28 of 44 delegates), four of Erongo, six of 11 Kunene South delegates, one of Kunene North, six of eight Young Democrats, seven of 23 from Caprivi, nine of 11 from Omaheke, 22 from Hardap, all delegates of Oshikoto South, all from Kavango and Karas and nine from Otjozondjupa.The entire delegation of Oshikoto North remained in the hall after the walkout.