RDP launches party newsletter

WITH the political climate heating up three months before the national and presidential elections, political parties are getting more active to draw voter attention and yesterday the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) launched the first volume of its newsletter.

Titled ‘The Voice of Change’, the four-page, full-colour newsletter is available free of charge and is funded by membership donations. ‘We have been bombarded with requests ever since RDP was established in November 2007 to publish such a newsletter and our members and supporters have been persistently frustrated by the national broadcaster NBC due to few reports about our party activities such as our massive rallies recently at Rundu and Ohangwena, which thousands of people attended,’ said Information and Mobilisation Secretary Jeremiah Nambinga at the launch yesterday.’We aim to publish this newsletter twice a month or even more frequently, depending on funding available,’ Nambinga added.’The newsletter is also available online on the RDP website.’ The party plans to expand the newsletter by bringing information in different local languages, if finances allow it.Party members have already started distributing the newsletter to regional offices throughout the country. According to Nghiningiluandubo Kashume, the RDP’s Deputy Information and Mobilisation Secretary, the party mulled the idea to publish short reports on party activities in local languages on the party website.’The election campaign of US president Barack Obama used digital technology and the Internet and we also intend to use these technologies to the fullest,’ Kashume told The Namibian on the sidelines of the launch. The ‘Voice of Change’ newsletter is in A3 format like a newspaper, with reports from different RDP activities in the regions, a youth section and excerpts from the party’s 2009 election manifesto.Full-colour photos of recent RDP rallies are carried on the back page.