Communist Party wants election indaba

THE Communist Party of Namibia has called for a national indaba before any future elections are held in the country.

The opposition party feels there needs to be an in-depth discussion on the role of, for instance, the Electoral Commission of Namibia so that all parties involved with elections will have a clear understanding of what they need to do.’We have to clean the house first before we do anything else. Elections will be a fatal exercise if we don’t clean our house. This will include making the playing field level for all parties,’ party Secretary General Harry Boesak told The Namibian.They want civil society and the churches to be involved in such an indaba and proposed that it should also zoom in on the role of publicly funded institutions such as the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation.’If that happens we don’t need to test the will of the people in a court of law. It is very clear that some institutions, like the ECN, need new and clear directives,’ Boesak said.CP President Attie Beukes said although the church coalition came under attack for criticising the way certain elements of the election were conducted, they need to have broad shoulders because they have ‘the moral authority to point out the right direction’.’Their words and deeds need to go hand-in-hand. They have done well with the BIG (basic income grant) initiative and have shown they care for the people. They can even approach political parties to contribute to BIG,’ Beukes said.The CP also called on the Namibian Government to revisit the Southern Africa Development Community protocol on elections, which makes provision for the funding of all political parties and equal access to them irrespective of their representation or non-representation in Parliament.The party got 810 votes in last year’s National Assembly elections, the lowest by any party. Their best support was in Oshakati West, where they got 116 votes.

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