SWAPO cruises to victory

By: Asser Ntinda

Eight opposition parties which came together and formed a loose coalition a few weeks ago to deprive SWAPO Party of a victory in the Okahandja by-election have dismally failed to achieve their objective.

The parties spectacularly lost to SWAPO Party candidate, Cde Steve Biko Booys , by a huge margin, garnering only 1559 votes for their candidate, Christophina Paulus, while SWAPO Party’s Booys walked away with a whopping 3153 votes. “Independent” candidate Ben Katamila got 480, while SWANU got only 51.

Head of the National leaders assigned to Otjodjondjupa Region, Cde Immanuel Ngatjizeko, congratulated and commended the people of Okahandja, saying that the mandate they had given to SWAPO Party meant that they did not entertain coalition politics.

“I am very gratified,” he said in a telephonic interview. “The outcome of the election is significant in many ways. I do not know what the next step by the opposition will be, but they must come clean and accept the result. “The outcome also serves as a reminder that the people have not forgotten the sacrifices they made during the struggle for independence. They trusted SWAPO as the only party that would bring about independence, and it did. “Now, a small community has shown that 20 years after independence, people believe that it is only SWAPO Party that can make a difference. It is only SWAPO Party that can address issues like unemployment, poverty eradication, education and health and many issues.

“That trust is to be appreciated. There were many attempts to mislead those people, but they remained firm, focused and voted for SWAPO Party. All that they need to do now is to demand delivery on the leader they have elected on the promises which the Party has made. They must demand delivery on issues like portable water, housing, education, health and sanitation.”

There are 13 888 registered voters in Okahandja Constituency on the voters roll provided by the Electoral Commission of Namibia, ECN. Out of that figure, only 5275 people voted. There were only two spoiled ballots, while 32 were rejected. Cde Booys is to be sworn in today in Otjiwarongo.

“I am happy with the results,” said SWAPO Party Regional Coordinator for Otjozondjupa Region, Cde Otto Ipinge. “I salute and commend the people of Okahandja Constituency for a job well done.

“You have spoken. Your voices were loud and clear. You have shown them who you are. These parties wanted to implement their pilot project on their coalition in Otjozondjupa Region.

“They made a serious mistake by choosing our region. They must never try it again here. We have taught them a lesson they will never forget. This is what we mean when we say SWAPO is the people and the people are SWAPO.” The eight parties, led by the Rally for Democracy and Progress, RDP, are the All People’s Party, APP, the Republican Party, RP, the United Democratic Front, UDF, the Congress of Democrats, CoD, the National Unity Democratic Organization, NUDO, the Namibia Democratic Movement for Change, NDMC, and the Democratic Party of Namibia, DPN.

Coalition talks have been going on for sometimes now, following opposition parties’ poor performance in last year’s National Assembly and Presidential elections. Led by RDP’s Hidipo Hamutenya and urged on by a few academics, opposition parties bought the idea of forming a coalition as the only way to “unseat SWAPO Party from power.” Initially, only four parties supported the idea, but three others joined the fray later on. Last week, Hamutenya said that opposition parties had “put aside” their “little differences” as the only way “capture power” from SWAPO Party. He added that Okahandja by-election was “just the beginning of things to come.”

“Never again will we allow SWAPO alone to determine the destiny of this nation,” he told the coalition alliance. “We will influence the political direction of this country and that is why we decided to put aside our differences to achieve a better Namibia.”

Hamutenya made those words with an eye set on the outcome of Okahandja by-election, which he thought would hand the coalition a victory against SWAPO Party. The outcome of the by-election has shuttered that dream as all the eight parties performed poorly.

“This is just a plastic coalition,” said SWAPO Party Youth League Secretary, Cde Elijah Ngurare, shortly after the outcome of the election. “The coalition is finished. SWAPO Party is here to stay. Hidipo must eat up his own words now. The people have spoken.

“If you divide 1559 votes by eight, you get 194 votes. That means each of the eight parties only got 194 votes. Katamila did better than any of them. All it means is that even if these parties come together, there is no way they can unseat SWAPO Party from power.”

Several academics, commentators and journalists had predicted that once opposition parties formed a coalition, they would put up a strong challenge to SWAPO Party, which could be a test case for this year’s regional council’s elections slated for November.

Others even predicted that Katamila would take many votes from SWAPO Party and his candidature was heavily publicized. He ‘too, performed very poorly. “He (Katamila) has just ruined his political career,” said Cde Ngurare. Katamila was expelled from SWAPO Party last month for defying Party instructions not to stand as an independent candidate. SWAPO Party controls six of the seven constituencies which make up Otjozondjupa Region. These are Grootfontein, Omatako, Otjiwarongo, Otavi, Tsumkwe and Okahandja. Okakarara is under NUDO.