Steady stream of voters in Namibia’s north east

PATIENTLY and slowly – in some places more slowly than others, but nonetheless in a steady stream – the people in Namibia’s eastern most electoral districts flowed to the polling booths in their hundreds yesterday.

The outcome in the country’s eastern most constituency, the Swapo stronghold of Kabbe, may be all but a foregone conclusion, but it was evident yesterday that the residents of the constituency were not about to leave the outcome of the poll in their district up to chance. So hundreds of Kabbe’s 5 071 registered voters flocked to the polling stations yesterday.At Kabbe village itself – situated some 50 kilometres southeast of Katima Mulilo – close to 200 people had voted by about 14h30, and a queue was forming outside the polling station.In the next village, Lusese, about 130 people had voted by 14h00.Polling officials said they expected the pace of voters arriving at the polling points to pick up once the customary stifling midday heat experienced in this area subsided as the afternoon wore on.It is not just the weather that may present an obstacle for voter turnout in this constituency.Kabbe also includes some of Namibia’s most remote voting areas – such as Impalila, at the very eastern tip of the Caprivi Region, where election officials and voting materials had to be flown in by helicopter over the weekend.In the last National Assembly elections in 1999, Swapo won a crushing victory in Kabbe, with 96 per cent of the total votes that had been cast going to the ruling party.In the constituency next door, Katima Mulilo Rural, which is Namibia’s second most eastern constituency after Kabbe, voting also appeared to be proceeding at a steady but leisurely pace.At Bukalo, some 38 km southeast of Katima Mulilo, over 400 Katima Mulilo Rural voters had cast their ballots by about 15h00 yesterday.Katima Mulilo Rural, with 6 807 registered voters, was also swept by Swapo in the 1999 National Assembly elections, when the party drew some 57 per cent of the votes.The Caprivi Region may be one of the regions where voter turnout may be an especially significant determining factor in the outcome of the elections in the region’s six constituencies.The region had initially recorded overall opposition majorities in post-Independence elections until the DTA self-destructed in Caprivi with the involvement of Caprivi-born DTA leader Mishake Muyongo and most of the party’s regional leadership in a separatist plot and sudden flight from Namibia in late 1998, shortly before that year’s Regional Council elections.With unprecedented low turnouts recorded at previously DTA-held seats in the western part of the region, Swapo candidates swept to victory in all six the region’s constituencies in 1998.It might not find the going that easy this year.Kabbe, however, is considered to be a safe seat for Swapo, as is Katima Mulilo Urban, with Katima Mulilo Rural probably less so.The visibility of election campaign materials such as parties’ posters seems to reinforce that perception, with Swapo posters, as well as ones of President Hifikepunye Poha – sorry, Swapo presidential candidate Hifikepunye Pohamba – appearing to the most widely distributed of all the parties through the Kabbe and Katima Mulilo Rural constituencies.The RP has been hard at work in the region, capitalising on mistakes that other opposition parties had made when they did not maintain a high profile in the region, the party’s Vice President, Geoffrey Chilinda – who hails from the region – told The Namibian on Sunday.He said the RP was set to deliver a surprise from the ballot box in the Caprivi Region this week.If that surprise comes, it may well be at the expense of the CoD.One of its Members of Parliament from the Caprivi Region, Linus Muchila, acknowledged yesterday that the party might have been hurt by a failure to keep up proper contact with its support base in the Caprivi Region in the time that former MP Linus Chata, who also hailed from the region, served in Parliament.Muchila maintained, though, that he was confident that the CoD would emerge as the strongest party in at least three constituencies in the Caprivi Region this week.So hundreds of Kabbe’s 5 071 registered voters flocked to the polling stations yesterday.At Kabbe village itself – situated some 50 kilometres southeast of Katima Mulilo – close to 200 people had voted by about 14h30, and a queue was forming outside the polling station.In the next village, Lusese, about 130 people had voted by 14h00.Polling officials said they expected the pace of voters arriving at the polling points to pick up once the customary stifling midday heat experienced in this area subsided as the afternoon wore on.It is not just the weather that may present an obstacle for voter turnout in this constituency.Kabbe also includes some of Namibia’s most remote voting areas – such as Impalila, at the very eastern tip of the Caprivi Region, where election officials and voting materials had to be flown in by helicopter over the weekend.In the last National Assembly elections in 1999, Swapo won a crushing victory in Kabbe, with 96 per cent of the total votes that had been cast going to the ruling party.In the constituency next door, Katima Mulilo Rural, which is Namibia’s second most eastern constituency after Kabbe, voting also appeared to be proceeding at a steady but leisurely pace.At Bukalo, some 38 km southeast of Katima Mulilo, over 400 Katima Mulilo Rural voters had cast their ballots by about 15h00 yesterday.Katima Mulilo Rural, with 6 807 registered voters, was also swept by Swapo in the 1999 National Assembly elections, when the party drew some 57 per cent of the votes.The Caprivi Region may be one of the regions where voter turnout may be an especially significant determining factor in the outcome of the elections in the region’s six constituencies.The region had initially recorded overall opposition majorities in post-Independence elections until the DTA self-destructed in Caprivi with the involvement of Caprivi-born DTA leader Mishake Muyongo and most of the party’s regional leadership in a separatist plot and sudden flight from Namibia in late 1998, shortly before that year’s Regional Council elections.With unprecedented low turnouts recorded at previously DTA-held seats in the western part of the region, Swapo candidates swept to victory in all six the region’s constituencies in 1998.It might not find the going that easy this year.Kabbe, however, is considered to be a safe seat for Swapo, as is Katima Mulilo Urban, with Katima Mulilo Rural probably less so.The visibility of election campaign materials such as parties’ posters seems to reinforce that perception, with Swapo posters, as well as ones of President Hifikepunye Poha – sorry, Swapo presidential candidate Hifikepunye Pohamba – appearing to the most widely distributed of all the parties through the Kabbe and Katima Mulilo Rural constituencies.The RP has been hard at work in the region, capitalising on mistakes that other opposition parties had made when they did not maintain a high profile in the region, the party’s Vice President, Geoffrey Chilinda – who hails from the region – told The Namibian on Sunday.He said the RP was set to deliver a surprise from the ballot box in the Caprivi Region this week.If that surprise comes, it may well be at the expense of the CoD.One of its Members of Parliament from the Caprivi Region, Linus Muchila, acknowledged yesterday that the party might have been hurt by a failure to keep up proper contact with its support base in the Caprivi Region in the time that former MP Linus Chata, who also hailed from the region, served in Parliament.Muchila maintained, though, that he was confident that the CoD would emerge as the strongest party in at least three constituencies in the Caprivi Region this week.