Ulenga confident of CoD’s chances

TWO elections ago they were the new kids on the block attracting attacks from Swapo everywhere they went. Ten years down the line, the Congress of Democrats faces the fight of its life.

Due to internal squabbles they have lost several key leaders, including vice president Nora Schimming-Chase and former MP Ignatius Sixwameni, and some of their ardent followers who have moved on because they could not stand the infighting in the party.However, CoD president Ben Ulenga sees the party playing a bigger role than it did 10 years ago.’We are very much still relevant and our principles remain as they were then. We still stand up and issue a different and contesting view as we did 10 years ago,’ Ulenga told The Namibian on the sidelines of his party’s manifesto launch at Mariental on Saturday.Ulenga formed the party 10 years ago after he became disillusioned with Swapo and objected to the country’s involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo conflict, as well as former President Sam Nujoma’s decision to stand for a third term.He was also not happy with the Government’s response to the plight of former combatants, of whom he was one before he was arrested and jailed at Robben Island.Ulenga moved out to give Swapo members and others an alternative, but the DTA suffered the most from its arrival on the political scene, as the CoD took a lot of its support in the 1999 elections. The CoD got seven seats in the National Assembly with 9,94 per cent of the votes.In 2004 the party again failed to make significant inroads into Swapo territory.It did increase its votes by around 6 000 but ended up having fewer seats (five) in the National Assembly because of a high voter turnout.The performance was still good enough to earn the party the mantle of official opposition even though they only had seven per cent of the vote.The party has also lost significantly in the Caprivi, where its share of the vote has gone down from 37 per cent to 13 per cent, but performed best in the southern Hardap and Karas regions.That, perhaps, was one of the main reasons why Ulenga’s party chose Mariental for the launch of its manifesto.’We chose Mariental because we associate with you. We associate with the jobless and hungry people of the South,’ Ulenga told the crowd at the launch on Saturday.He said the South – with its richness in diamonds, fish and many other natural resources – had been neglected by a Government only interested in empowering cronies.The South – Keetmanshoop to be specific – is also where problems started in CoD.Things started falling apart when the party held its 2007 extraordinary congress there and was divided into two camps – one for Ulenga and the other for Schimming-Chase.Ulenga was re-elected but things never returned to normal, as the two factions continued until earlier this year when Schimming-Chase was recalled from the National Assembly and later resigned.Although the party has lost support significantly and is not sure about the impact the arrival of Rally for Democracy and Progress will have on its fortunes, Ulenga believes that the CoD is ready to take over from Swapo.’There is a need for a different voice and we offer that. We are the ones who stood up when everybody could not in Swapo. The things I said 10 years ago I hear in Swapo today. It shows the principles of not going to wars, for instance, still stand today. In 1999 those were symbols and symptoms that Swapo was getting sick,’ Ulenga said.Having seen its votes increase from 53 289 (1999) to 59 464 (in 2004), CoD now faces a mammoth task to keep its status as the official opposition come March 2010.