Okahandja at the ballot box

AN estimated 13 800 residents of the Okahandja constituency head for the polling stations today to elect a new regional councillor in a four-horse race.

The constituency has been a Swapo stronghold since Independence, with the ruling party scoring a runaway victory in the 2004 elections. They had 2 677 votes against the 556 of the nearest rival, the National Unity Democratic Organisation. The picture changed a lot in last year’s presidential and national elections, with Swapo collecting 4 798 votes against the 1 372 of the Rally for Democracy and Progress and 617 of the United Democratic Front. Third was Nudo with 553 votes.Seven of the parties – the RDP, UDF, Nudo, All People’s Party (APP), Republican Party (RP), Congress of Democrats (CoD), Namibia Democratic Movement for Change (NDMC) and the Democratic Party of Namibia – have since formed a coalition to challenge Swapo.Going by the December results it could mean that they can collect up to 2 832 votes.That is if they keep all the votes from last December.However, regional elections have never recorded results that are similar to national elections, as some people vote according to what a candidate can offer.Also, apart from Steve Biko Boois of Swapo and Christophine ‘Kitto’ Paulus of the RDP alliance, Swanu has also entered their own candidate while Ben Katamila, who was kicked out of Swapo earlier, also stands as an independent candidate.The impact that Katamila’s presence in the race will have on votes for the various parties is not clear.Swapo seems to have maintained its huge following, judging from the weekend’s rally.Swanu president Usutuaije Maaberua described their candidate, Ehrenfreid Muroua, as a dark horse in the race.’People shouldn’t be surprised if Swanu wins this constituency. We have the best candidate. The best gesture other parties could have offered to the voters was to withdraw all of them because our candidate is much more skilled and best qualified,’ Maamberua told The Namibian.Elections Director Moses Ndjarakana said they were all ready to go for today’s election showdown.’Everything is fine. We are ready,’ he said yesterday afternoon.The ECN has deployed 15 fixed teams and 10 mobile teams in and around Okahandja.They have over 100 officials to ensure that all goes well.Counting will start immediately after the polling stations close at 21h00 tonight.