Govt accuses HH of disturbing SADC peace

GOVERNMENT has joined the Swapo Party in responding to opposition leader Hidipo Hamutenya’s allegations of cheating during past elections, charging that the RDP president was compromising peace and stability in the SADC region.

In its response, Government focused on an article published in the State-owned daily New Era on November 3, which stated that Hamutenya ‘believes it was through the movement of ballot boxes that the ruling parties in the SADC region had the chance to exchange genuine ballot boxes with fake ones’.At a press conference on Friday morning, Information and Communication Technology Minister Joel Kaapanda expressed ‘shock and disbelief to learn that Mr Hidipo Hamutenya… is trying to disturb peace and stability in the SADC region.’Quoting from the article, Kaapanda asked whether Hamutenya was implying that the entire SADC region was being run by illegitimate governments, saying the statement was a ‘dangerous’ and ‘unacceptable’ one. He said Hamutenya’s statement placed Namibia ‘in bad light in the eyes of other SADC countries,’ and cautioned the public ‘not to make irresponsible statements which have the effect of putting our country and Namibian citizens on a collision course with our brothers and sisters in SADC’.’What SADC needs is peace and stability, not utterances which have an effect of putting the entire region at risk of instability,’ Kaapanda said of the statements made at an RDP rally at Okongo in the North.He added that independent election observers had monitored elections in the region.’Who is Mr Hamutenya to speak on behalf of the entire SADC region on this subject matter?’Responding to Hamutenya’s claims in the said article that the RDP had forced Swapo ‘to comply with the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) protocol that prevents the movement of ballot boxes from an election point to a central counting centre’, Kaapanda said the RDP could not claim this as a victory.’We wish to inform him that contrary to his utterances, it is the leaders of those ruling parties in their capacity as Heads of States or Governments who initiated the SADC protocol on minimum election standards,’ he said.Personalising the attack on Hamutenya’s statement, Government’s statement said that the RDP president’s ‘utterances can only be described as activities of a desperate politician’, that it was ‘most unfortunate to note the incredible ignorance of Mr Hamutenya’, and that the Government ‘would like to advise Mr Hamutenya not to extend his political desperation beyond the borders of Namibia’. The Minister of Presidential Affairs, Albert Kawana, who was also present at the press conference, joined in on the action, stating that Hamutenya’s statement was ‘ridiculous’, and quashing any inferences of cheating by the Swapo party.’All elections since Independence have never been controlled or supervised by any political party, including Swapo,’ he stated, adding that the only election process run by the party were those that took place at the party’s Congress and National Conventions, in terms of the structures of the party.He added that only the Electoral Commission of Namibia, as an independent body, had the mandate to supervise and control the elections.’For someone to come and allege that ballot boxes were switched by Swapo is a ridiculous statement’.Speaking for the party, Kawana said: ‘We have nothing, absolutely nothing, to hide. We want these elections to be as credible, as transparent, as free and as fair as any other elections in a democratic state.’He added that Namibia must meet the minimum standards defined by the SADC Protocol on elections, but stated that even so, ‘we can assure the Swapo Party will emerge victorious.’- nangula@namibian.com.na