NamPol ready to keep eye on voters

THE Namibian Police are on full alert for the elections and won’t tolerate anybody breaking the law, regardless of the political party membership card he or she carries.

‘Those who are ready to spend hours or even months in Police cells, try it,’ Deputy Commissioner Hophni Hamufungu warned yesterday.Briefing international election observers, Hamufungu said the Police’s operations plan for the coming election is in place and all the Police formations ‘know what to do’. Where necessary, reinforcements from the Police headquarters in Windhoek have been sent to the regions.The Police are under ‘no political pressure’, Hamufungu said. They answer only to the Constitution and the Police Act.’We don’t want to know if you belong to the DTA, the UDF, Swapo, Swanu or whatever other name your party goes by, we will arrest you for the crime you have allegedly committed,’ he said.This can range from vandalising a party poster and attacking members of other political parties to more general transgressions like speeding, the Deputy Commissioner said.The Police do ‘threat assessments’ to ensure that their response to possible situations will be as ‘adequate as possible’, he said.They have already met with the political leadership at national and regional level.’Our message is a straightforward one: to make sure everyone understands the need for a peaceful election and outcome and also understand the code of conduct for political parties.’Elections have become the ‘lifeblood of the Namibian democracy’, the Chairman of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), Victor Tonchi, said at the same occasion. ‘Despite the numerous challenges and minefields resulting from contestations and rivalry between political parties scrambling for seats and the oval office, we are fortunate that our preparations for the November 2009 elections as a country are also supported by 20 years of political experience, tolerance, peace and stability,’ Tonchi said.He described this year’s elections as ‘crucial’, because ‘we want to mainstream the socially marginalised groups into the electoral process: the youth including born-frees, people living with disabilities, the homeless, women and rural people’.Tonchi called on the media to remain ‘a vigilant watchdog of democratisation to ensure that the voters’ voices, including those of the silent majority, are heard’.jo-mare@namibian.com.na