CoD ‘majority faction’ sound warning on audit team, party HQ

A GROUP of the main opposition party that has demanded a forensic audit into controversial leadership elections has warned that they would be within their rights to “forcefully take over” the party head office in Windhoek West.

The Congress of Democrats (CoD) group claims that the office has been illegally occupied by party leaders since a congress at which they were controversially elected a month ago. Ignatius Shixwameni, who heads the group that walked out of the extraordinary congress held at Keetmanshoop, told a press conference that there was “concrete and impeccable evidence” that the elections were “hijacked” by those CoD members who wanted party president Ben Ulenga to be re-elected “by hook or by crook”.”The 156 members who walked out left just 122 members behind, so our group is the majority and we are not a rebel faction, as some media reported recently,” Shixwameni charged.”As such, we, as the CoD majority, can bring in people from the regions and forcefully take over the party head office,” he added.”We also call on all regional CoD leaders and ordinary party members not to co-operate with the Ulenga group.”The group gave Ulenga a 14-day ultimatum to consult with them on an independent forensic audit of the controversial elections.The deadline passed on Wednesday.Shixwameni – who lost out to Ulenga by 14 votes – yesterday expressed outrage that Ulenga had not reacted.”I personally hand-delivered a letter to that effect, signed by me, to the party head office on May 8.It is sad that Mr Ulenga did not even bother to respond,” Shixwameni said.A Government-owned newspaper reported yesterday that the Ulenga group had appointed an audit team – including Phil ya Nangoloh of the National Society for Human Rights, political analyst Professor Joe Diescho and Magistrate Clement Daniels.However, those disputing the election were not consulted about the make-up of the team.CoD Members of Parliament Kala Gertze and Nora Schimming-Chase, who are part of the Shixwameni group, yesterday said the audit team information appeared to have been “purposefully leaked to that newspaper in order to abort and derail the audit process”.”We will only agree on an audit if both CoD groups have accepted terms of reference for the audit team and if we both have agreed on the names of people to perform the audit,” Schimming-Chase said.”This has not happened; the other group has not contacted us,” she said.”Mr Ulenga publicly stated he would step down if any irregularities were to be found during the audit.”Shixwameni added that what he called the illegal CoD leadership should stay away from the party head office once the independent audit team started its work.”They should not go near there during the whole process,” he said.Meanwhile, Ulenga has declined to comment on the news report about the appointment of the forensic audit team.”We will not discuss this with the media – only at a later stage,” he told The Namibian yesterday.He also would not say how many people would serve on the audit team.Approached for comment, Phil ya Nangoloh expressed concern about the premature mention of the names of some people whom the Ulenga group had asked to serve on the audit team.”It is unfortunate that some names were made public before the selection of all members is finalised,” he said.”The credibility of this panel is severely damaged before it even started, since it has to deal with a very sensitive issue,” he said.Ignatius Shixwameni, who heads the group that walked out of the extraordinary congress held at Keetmanshoop, told a press conference that there was “concrete and impeccable evidence” that the elections were “hijacked” by those CoD members who wanted party president Ben Ulenga to be re-elected “by hook or by crook”.”The 156 members who walked out left just 122 members behind, so our group is the majority and we are not a rebel faction, as some media reported recently,” Shixwameni charged.”As such, we, as the CoD majority, can bring in people from the regions and forcefully take over the party head office,” he added.”We also call on all regional CoD leaders and ordinary party members not to co-operate with the Ulenga group.”The group gave Ulenga a 14-day ultimatum to consult with them on an independent forensic audit of the controversial elections.The deadline passed on Wednesday.Shixwameni – who lost out to Ulenga by 14 votes – yesterday expressed outrage that Ulenga had not reacted.”I personally hand-delivered a letter to that effect, signed by me, to the party head office on May 8.It is sad that Mr Ulenga did not even bother to respond,” Shixwameni said.A Government-owned newspaper reported yesterday that the Ulenga group had appointed an audit team – including Phil ya Nangoloh of the National Society for Human Rights, political analyst Professor Joe Diescho and Magistrate Clement Daniels.However, those disputing the election were not consulted about the make-up of the team.CoD Members of Parliament Kala Gertze and Nora Schimming-Chase, who are part of the Shixwameni group, yesterday said the audit team information appeared to have been “purposefully leaked to that newspaper in order to abort and derail the audit process”.”We will only agree on an audit if both CoD groups have accepted terms of reference for the audit team and if we both have agreed on the names of people to perform the audit,” Schimming-Chase said.”This has not happened; the other group has not contacted us,” she said.”Mr Ulenga publicly stated he would step down if any irregularities were to be found during the audit.”Shixwameni added that what he called the illegal CoD leadership should stay away from the party head office once the independent audit team started its work.”They should not go near there during the whole process,” he said.Meanwhile, Ulenga has declined to comment on the news report about the appointment of the forensic audit team.”We will not discuss this with the media – only at a later stage,” he told The Namibian yesterday.He also would not say how many people would serve on the audit team.Approached for comment, Phil ya Nangoloh expressed concern about the premature mention of the names of some people whom the Ulenga group had asked to serve on the audit team.”It is unfortunate that some names were made public before the selection of all members is finalised,” he said.”The credibility of this panel is severely damaged before it even started, since it has to deal with a very sensitive issue,” he said.