Lowest voter turnout at Walvis Bay

WALVIS BAY recorded the lowest voter turnout in the country in Friday’s municipal poll.

Of the 25 904 registered voters, only 7 846 people cast their vote on Friday resulting in a voting percentage of 30,3. As Schedule I municipalities, Windhoek has 15 councillors, while Walvis Bay and Swakopmund each have 10 councillors.Outgoing Mayor of Walvis Bay, King Mandume Muatunga, told The Namibian yesterday despite the low voter turnout he was extremely happy with the result.With 6 179 votes, Swapo maintained its eight seats on the Council, while the DTA (722 votes) and Congress of Democrats (CoD), with 625 votes each, won one seat.The DTA had two seats in the previous term.Nudo, the fourth party to stand at Walvis Bay, only received 253 votes.In defence of the low voter turnout at his town, the former Mayor Muatunga said the number had almost doubled since 1998 when only 4 095 people voted.He said the fact that only one day was given for the election was a problem.”Walvis Bay cannot be compared to a village with small numbers.If the election was held over two days, we would have seen much higher numbers”.He added that there were also not enough polling stations at Walvis Bay.The Mayor said he did not think the fact that some Swapo supporters were furious about the party list for the election played a role in the poor voter performance.”That concern was just an individual perception.The fact that more people turned up to vote is an indication of the confidence voters have in the party,” he said.Concerns were raised before the election that the list was an “all-Ovambo list”, with some candidates who collected as much as 20 votes being replaced by people who had less.According to Cleophas Ngwena, Regional Co-ordinator of the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (Nafau) at Walvis Bay, the candidates’ list did play a major role as “more prominent people were taken out”.He speculated it might have lost the party some votes.Ngwena also said one day was not enough and that the polling stations should have stayed open until midnight.”Many workers only knock off at 22h00, such as hotel employees, and by that time the stations were closed.”Nafau alleged that several sea-going workers would not vote as some fishing companies refused to call their vessels back, while others went to sea before Friday.The union official told The Namibian yesterday that he estimated that more than 300 sea-going workers were unable to vote.According to Amos Nguaiko, presiding officer of Elections at Walvis Bay many people tended to vote very late.He said people arrived only at 21h30 and still wanted to vote.According to Nguaiko, Police officers were placed in the queues at 21h00 behind the last person to indicate the cut-off point.There were still so many voters at that time, that four polling stations at Kuisebmond only closed at 02h00.The counting of the votes also took 13 hours, much longer than anticipated, as many officials were new to the process.As Schedule I municipalities, Windhoek has 15 councillors, while Walvis Bay and Swakopmund each have 10 councillors.Outgoing Mayor of Walvis Bay, King Mandume Muatunga, told The Namibian yesterday despite the low voter turnout he was extremely happy with the result.With 6 179 votes, Swapo maintained its eight seats on the Council, while the DTA (722 votes) and Congress of Democrats (CoD), with 625 votes each, won one seat.The DTA had two seats in the previous term.Nudo, the fourth party to stand at Walvis Bay, only received 253 votes.In defence of the low voter turnout at his town, the former Mayor Muatunga said the number had almost doubled since 1998 when only 4 095 people voted.He said the fact that only one day was given for the election was a problem.”Walvis Bay cannot be compared to a village with small numbers.If the election was held over two days, we would have seen much higher numbers”.He added that there were also not enough polling stations at Walvis Bay.The Mayor said he did not think the fact that some Swapo supporters were furious about the party list for the election played a role in the poor voter performance.”That concern was just an individual perception.The fact that more people turned up to vote is an indication of the confidence voters have in the party,” he said.Concerns were raised before the election that the list was an “all-Ovambo list”, with some candidates who collected as much as 20 votes being replaced by people who had less.According to Cleophas Ngwena, Regional Co-ordinator of the Namibia Food and Allied Workers Union (Nafau) at Walvis Bay, the candidates’ list did play a major role as “more prominent people were taken out”.He speculated it might have lost the party some votes.Ngwena also said one day was not enough and that the polling stations should have stayed open until midnight.”Many workers only knock off at 22h00, such as hotel employees, and by that time the stations were closed.”Nafau alleged that several sea-going workers would not vote as some fishing companies refused to call their vessels back, while others went to sea before Friday.The union official told The Namibian yesterday that he estimated that more than 300 sea-going workers were unable to vote.According to Amos Nguaiko, presiding officer of Elections at Walvis Bay many people tended to vote very late.He said people arrived only at 21h30 and still wanted to vote.According to Nguaiko, Police officers were placed in the queues at 21h00 behind the last person to indicate the cut-off point.There were still so many voters at that time, that four polling stations at Kuisebmond only closed at 02h00.The counting of the votes also took 13 hours, much longer than anticipated, as many officials were new to the process.