Swapo sweeps first Oranjemund poll

THE Swapo Party has claimed a landslide victory with over 80 per cent of the vote in the first Oranjemund local authority election on Friday.

Swapo garnered 1 560 votes, securing six seats out of the seven in the town council. In fact, Swapo won five seats outright but got an additional seat through 145 surplus votes. The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) scored 379 votes. A strategic move by RDP to field a manager in Namdeb’s property division, Ronnie Slabbert, as the party’s number one candidate to canvass more votes did not work, as it only secured one seat. Widespread rumours ahead of the election had it that Swapo tried to discredit Slabbert with alleged corruption claims to have him transferred out of Oranjemund, fearing his popularity could swing votes to the RDP. The Namibian understands Swapo had also shown interest in nominating Slabbert, but the RDP had already persuaded him to stand as their candidate. Rudolph Kamburona of RDP accepted the poll results.’We have at least won one seat in a Swapo no-go area, it’s a blessing,’ said Kamburona.However, he was quick to say the polls were ‘free but not fair’.’The election was free, but fairness that I cannot declare,’ said Kamburona, claiming election officials tried to exploit loopholes in the Electoral Act.He maintained that election officials wanted to allow people to vote with voter cards issued during the Oranjemund Constituency regional election, but that the RDP put a stop to it. Poor election campaigning came back to haunt the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), which won only 45 votes – not enough to secure a seat on the council. Lesley Marenga, who topped the DTA party list, accepted the poll results, saying poor campaigning had contributed to the party’s loss.’The election was free and fair, we have to blame ourselves,’ said Marenga. A total of 1 984 votes were cast at five polling stations, with two rejected ballots. There are 2 221 registered voters at the town. Despite earlier claims by RDP that its campaign posters had been torn off by unknown persons, no election violence was reported. After the announcement of the results about two hours after the polling stations closed at 19h00, a group of Swapo supporters started celebrating the party’s victory. The police eventually had to nip the partying in the bud when the celebrations continued after midnight.Party members dressed in Swapo colours gathered at the local party office early Saturday morning and staged a victory march through the town with a police escort. luqman@namibian.com.na