OMUTHIYA – The ruling party Swapo has once again proved that Oshikoto is one of its strongholds, despite political rivals working tirelessly to topple the former liberation movement.
However, this effort failed as Swapo managed to retain its control with a landslide victory in the regional councils elections.
The party has won all the 11 constituencies.
It was however, dealt a blow in the local authorities by drastically reducing its majority power to four seats, leaving three seats to opposition parties in Oniipa, Omuthiya, while Tsumeb lost one seat
These town councils will have to a adapt to bitter reality of having opposition councillors.
Meanwhile, Tsumeb seems to have matured with that pain as only one seat is occupied by other parties which is Independent Patriots for Change, who snatched the chair from Popular Democratic Movement.
All three chairs in Omuthiyagwiipundi were taken by IPC.
Oniipa was highly contested with more than five parties including independent candidates, thus the outcome came as no surprise.
Voters failed us
Independent candidate of Oniipa who ran under the banner of Affirmative Repositioning Movement, Oscar Shikongo lamented his poor showing on low voter turnout. He got 81 votes, while Swapo’s Vilho Tulipohamba Nuunyango won by a landslide of 3 930.
“I will continue being an activist beyond this point. I look forward to 2024, it’s around the corner. I also failed to capitalise due to lack of resources to campaign. The process was fair and I lost fairly,” Shikongo admitted.
On the other hand, councillor hopeful for Omuthiya David Uusiku who lost by 2 113 to incumbent councillor Samuel Shivute who garnered 3 759, said “the blame of not winning is on youths.
They are ignorant of their own future. Not all of them made efforts to travel and come vote, those who moved in town did not renew their cards.”
Uusiku pledged to work closely with the leadership for the betterment of the masses, as he eyes another future stint.
Meanwhile, Walter Kuhanga who was a candidate for Popular Democratic Movement accepted the results as they are. “Nothing is wrong, I am fine with the outcome, we move on, even though I haven’t heard the results officially,” he said.
Kuhanga lost by 322 against Gottlieb Ndjendjela of Swapo with 3 640 votes.
Taking what you can
Swapo regional coordinator for Oshikoto, Armas Amukwiyu, has described the somewhat poor performance in local authorities as “taking what is enough in democracy and leaving for others to have something as it was an open contest.”
“So, we still have a simple majority and we set the standards in decision making. Most of these councillors are amateurs and still have alot to learn, we will orient them,” added Amukwiyu, saying he hopes they will not become stubborn unnecessarily.
Therefore, we have heard the cries of the masses and implore the cadres to do more work in assisting the community that entrusted us with power.
New constituency councillors are Gottlieb Ndjendjela (Tsumeb), Sacky Nangula (Omuntele), Vilho Nuuyango (Oniipa), Fillemon Ndjambula (Olukonda), Hans Nambodi (Okankolo), Samuel Shivute (Omuthiya), Gideon Shikomba (Onyaanya), Josef Shilongo (Nehale Lya Mpingana), Protasius Neshuku (Eengodi), Elias Kainda Marthinus (Guinas) and Mathews Kamati Nelumbu ( Onayena).