INDEPENDENT Patriots for Change (IPC) leader Panduleni Itula said one can never continue to vote for corruption and yet declare corruption a cancer in society.
This comes after Swapo won the Okaku constituency by-election on Friday, although with less votes than the party received in 2020.
The IPC also saw their share of the votes reduced.
The constituency in the Oshana region held a by-election on Friday after the death of Swapo councillor Gerson Kapenda in December 2022.
Itula said the Okaku by-election result should be seen as a strong indication that voters are as yet to recognise the power they have to change their socio-economic woes.
“In any case, the evidence suggests that the attending voters were principally advanced in age … no revolution or independence had ever been won by the efforts of the elders…
“For our voters, well done as long as you demonstrated and sacrificed your day for the honour of our democracy … only it was not issue-based but historical malaise.
“The Namibians must come to terms that Swapo has no morally ethical credible leader whatsoever, at any level of government, to change our socio-economic woes,” Itula said.
In the 2020 regional and local authority elections, Kapenda got 3 261 votes, but in Friday’s election, Swapo candidate David Fillipus garnered 3 195 votes.
The IPC, which received 970 votes in 2020, got 850 votes on Friday. The IPC lost 120 votes in the by-election, fielded by Sakaria Jakop as its candidate for the Okaku elections.
The Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF), which fielded a candidate at Okaku, received 294 votes on Friday while Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), which received 62 votes in 2020, got 122 votes on Friday.
NEFF’s Longinus Iipumbu said his party is happy with the election results at Okaku, which has been one of Swapo’s strongholds in the north.
“A number of people have joined the NEFF. What we have achieved in the Okaku constituency is something that needs to be celebrated and something we need to build on. The only party that is growing is the NEFF,” he said. Iipumbu said his party will not disregard or regret the results of the Okaku by-election.
He urged the youth to register to have voters’ cards in order to participate in the 2024 general elections.
“In order to bring about change, you must have a voter’s card, stand in a queue and cast your vote,” he said.
Iipumbu said while preparing for the elections, his party has formulated 17 branches at Okaku.
PDM secretary general Manuel Ngaringombe said his party is growing in the north.
“We have committed elders and young people who believe in our party. In 2020, we fielded the same candidate and he got about 62 votes. Now he got 122. It’s a good result, although we did not want to end fourth,” he said.
Both Fillipus and Swapo regional coordinator for Oshana Werner Iita said Swapo knew it would win the Okaku-election as the party has built schools and clinics in the Okaku constituency, which it will continue to do.
“We will make sure that the person who has been elected has delivered the necessary services to the people of Okaku,” Iita said. PDM was represented by Jason Haufiku, while Tomas Nambambi represented the NEFF.
The Electoral Commission of Namibia announced that 4 463 votes were cast in the by-election, of which 22 were rejected.
