Make Local Elections Relevant, They’re Not Popularity Contests

An informed guess suggested that voter turnout on Wednesday would be lower than in the last local council and regional authority elections in 2020.

Five years ago, voters seemed fired up following the exposure of the Fishrot scandal in 2019 and the elevated hope of independent candidature following dentist Panduleni Itula’s strong showing of a third of the votes against then popular Swapo strongman and incumbent president Hage Geingob.

Last year’s national and presidential voting discouraged voters as the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) bungled the elections with slow-moving queues due to polling stations running out of ballot papers, and elections being extended in only some parts – especially ruling party strongholds.

Enthusiasm was absent in the run-up to this week’s voting, and the trickle of voters at most polling stations points to possibly the lowest turnout in decades.

Some, like Popular Democratic Movement secretary general Manuel Ngaringombe pointed to voter fatigue as one of several reasons for the lack of enthusiasm and expected low turnout.

A long-serving member of the Windhoek Municipal Council, Swapo’s Fransina Kahungu, told Desert Radio that people had told her they saw no point in voting because their needs were not being met by local politicians once voted into office.

Kahungu proposed “innovative” campaign plans, constant contact and educating voters to appreciate the importance of local elections as that of having close, accessible representation.

She also wanted voters to be allowed to cast their ballots wherever they find themselves in the country.

There could be a myriad of reasons driving voter apathy: lack of trust in the ECN following last year’s chaotic elections, voter and political parties suffering fatigue barely a year after the 2024 national and presidential polls, and the failure to deliver on election promises.

We believe the failure to deliver needed public services like water, electricity, housing and jobs tops the list.

Most of all, voters have come to realise that local and regional councils are not fit for purpose.

Swapo has deliberately moved to weaken local and regional authorities over the past 30 years, when in fact they need to be strengthened to meet the on-the-ground needs of the communities they are elected to serve.

The move to weaken towns and regional governments may yet prove a shortsighted attempt to dominate all levels of government since the 1989 elections when the ruling party garnered 57% of the national vote.

However, they lost most geographical areas, carrying the total number of votes with overwhelming dominance in former Ovamboland, and scraping past the post first in the Kavango regions and Windhoek.

Swapo reversed the local authority law that provided for a ward voting system – the ruling party merely pays lip service to decentralisation.

Local government minister James Sankwasa’s proposed law-aided power grabs at several towns and his bullying of elected officials at municipalities and regional councils is a clear indication of the central government’s overbearing grip on local authorities.

Voters are thus aware that municipal and regional councils are all but toothless.

To top it all, it is the central government that holds the bulk of the money from taxpayers and other public revenue sources.

Swapo’s information secretary, Hilma Nicanor, has in the past said the ruling party is not bothered by opposition inroads at council level.

“What changed? Swapo will continue to control the national cake. By the cake I am referring to the budget,” she said in 2020.

Unless there is a change in the balance of power and sources of financial resources, voters will not take localised elections seriously. At the moment it is more of a popularity contest.

It is crucial that parliamentarians change the laws to strengthen the voters’ hand in holding accountable the people they elect at towns, villages and related municipal levels.

Bring back the ward system so that voters can choose an individual from whom they can demand water, toilets, street lights, playgrounds and basic neighbourhood amenities, and security.

Importantly, that must be accompanied by the authority to collect and spend financial resources.

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