WINDHOEK – In order to promote unity and prevent post-congress chaos, acting leader of Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) Steve Bezuidenhoudt said he would not make public who he prefers to take over as president of the party.
Bezuidenhoudt, who is the RDP’s vice-president, admitted yesterday that he has his favoured candidate, but opted to keep that a secret “to ensure unity”.
“As a leader you must be careful when you publicly announce your candidate because the losing candidates might end up pointing fingers at you should your preferred candidate emerge victorious. Past experiences have created bad after-effects and animosity which are still felt in our national executive today,” he said.
So far Jeremiah Nambinga, Heiko Lucks and Kandy Nehova declared publicly they wish to succeed RDP founder Hidipo Hamutenya.Sources in the party said Bezuidenhoudt is backing Lucks to take over the party because of his youthfulness.
Without mentioning any names last year Bezuidenhoudt the acting president said in an interview that he wants a young person to lead the RDP.
Although Bezuidenhoudt is one of those who called for Hidipo Hamutenya to step down, he had a close relationship with Hamutenya, hence talks of him supporting Lucks could hold substance since Hamutenya endorsed Lucks as his successor.
The party will hold its elective congress next month to find Hamutenya’s successor.
Nehova serves as the party’s secretary for housing and human settlement while Nambinga is secretary for information, communication technology and publicity.
Both were part of Hamutenya’s group of followers who decided to jump the Swapo ship to start the RDP.
Nehova and Lucks were RDP MPs after the party garnered eight seats in the 2009 National Assembly election but failed to make the cut after the 2014 elections when the party managed to get only three seats.
The party’s poor performance is seen as one of the major factors which led to some RDP leaders, Bezuidenhoudt included, calling for Hamutenya to step down and hand power to a more youthful, dynamic and energetic person to revive the party’s fortunes.
Bezuidenhoudt said the party’s infrastructure would be available to all those competing to ensure that the process is done fairly.
“Of course I have my preferred candidate but I will keep it to myself to avoid any chaos. The problem we have in this country is that we do not fully understand how democracy works, and that is why you see so much chaos after internal elections,” he said.
Hamutenya in February announced his retirement, bringing to an end his political career that spanned over 50 years.
But just a few days after announcing his retirement Hamutenya reversed his decision claiming he was forced to go into retirement and did not do so voluntarily as alleged by the party leadership. However, his RDP colleagues remained resolute and barred him from regaining his seat.