National Democratic Party (NDP) leader and member of parliament Martin Lukato says Namibia needs a non-partisan speaker of the National Assembly who can treat all political parties equally.
Lukato was responding to the motion seeking the removal of speaker Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila, saying replacing her with another speaker from the ruling Swapo would not address what he describes as a systemic problem in parliament.
He says the speaker should remain neutral and free from political party affiliations, and recommends that candidates be submitted to parliament for thorough screening and debate prior to appointment.
“I have been advocating for the past years, even before I came to parliament, for the amendment of both the Constitution of Namibia and the Electoral Act of 2014, so that we can have a neutral speaker for parliament who is not influenced by any political party and who is going to serve and treat all political parties equally,” Lukato says.
He says he does not necessarily blame the current speaker personally, but rather the system that allows the ruling party to occupy key parliamentary positions.
“The current speaker can be removed and replaced by the same political party, but it is not going to work. He or she will never treat all political parties in parliament equally because he or she is coming from a ruling party,” he says.
He also proposes a rotation system in which the speaker and deputy speaker would come from opposing political sides.
“If the speaker is coming from the ruling party, then the deputy speaker should come from the opposition party. And if the speaker is from the opposition party, then the deputy speaker should come from the ruling party,” he says.
Lukato says this would provide greater balance in parliament while constitutional and electoral reforms are considered.
