Lahja Nashuuta
The United People’s Movement (UPM) has lost an income of N$ 1.75 million to the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) following the break-up of the political coalition in 2023 in support of Ally Angula, who was to contest as an independent candidate.
Jan van Wyk revealed this during an interview with New Era this week.
“As of the 1st of April until the 1st of October this year, we lost N$ 1.75 million that was supposed to come to assist us with the election campaign, which is now in the coffers of the PDM. And they are campaigning with this money comfortably” he charged. The UPM and the PDM entered a political alliance in a quest to overthrow the ruling party Swapo in the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections. These two parties agreed to file PDM president McHenry Venaani as their presidential candidate, and work together for the Presidential and National Assembly elections in 2019, as well as the 2020 Regional and Local Authority councils’ elections.
Through this coalition, the two parties managed to get 16 parliamentary seats, and became the second-largest party in the country, a position which automatically accorded them “Official opposition status”.
Van Wyk confessed that it was through the alliance that the UPM, a Rehoboth stronghold party, managed to gain three parliamentary seats, which was number 6, number 13 and number 18 through the joint parliamentary list drawn up as part of their alliance agreement.
Chronicling the parties’ alliance history, he revealed that the UPM worked closely with the former DTA (now PDM) during Katuutire Kaura’s leadership.
“It was a decision of the leaders at that time to support the DTA in the 2009 elections. In 2010, we contested local authority elections under the UPM. In 2014, we agreed to vote for the then-president of the DTA, and then for the National Assembly for the UPM,” he continued.
However, in 2023, following UPM president Van Wyk publicly preaching that he is supporting Ally Angula, the PDM could not take decision that lightly.
“Since there was nothing in the agreement saying that in 2024 we should still support Venaani or the PDM, we decided that we will go and support a better option. In the sense of choosing Angula, the PDM decided to kick us out of parliament”, he said.
Struggles
Van Wyk said: “Losing the parliamentary seats has affected us very, very badly; especially the fact that we don’t have resources, financial resources to really roll out our election campaigns.”
“It is difficult to get to all corners of Namibia. It’s the first time that the UPM contests elections, and has candidates from all over. We have people from the Zambezi region up to the Karas region; Omaheke and Erongo regions.
Unfortunately, we are not able to really support our candidates on the ground. So, we are struggling. But they are using the little that they must to promote themselves, and to tell people that we need to bring change”, he added.
Ally the golden girl
Angula could not enter the presidential race this year after she failed to gather
7 000 signatures, as per the Electoral Act.
However, to the UPM, she is still their golden girl that the party is preparing to file as the presidential candidate for the 2029 elections. “We told them that this time around, we are going to look at a different candidate. A candidate who is really a young person, capable. Therefore, we went for Ally Angula, and we don’t regret that. We took that decision and we stood with it, and she remained with us. And, of course, we will support her in 2029 as an independent presidential candidate” Van Wyk mantained.
“It was a bit disappointing for us to realise that she would not make it. But it was just because of the system. We were with her all the time, and it’s just that we could not load all the information on the system.
Otherwise, she would have been part of these elections. But yes, she stood with us, and we will continue supporting her.”
PDM secretary general Manuel Ngaringombe says the PDM owes the UPM nothing.
He asserted that the N$ 1.7 million the UPM is talking about was winded up with the termination of their political joint alliance.
“It was their own choice to pull out from the alliance which used to bring income to their party. Since they are no longer part of the PDM, they can not continue receiving our funds” Ngaringombe said.
“As part of the alliance, the PDM gave them three of its seats in the National Assembly that the party could not garner on their own”, he reasoned.
“Currently, the UPM does not receive money from parliament, but again it’s because they opted to pull out from the partnership,” Ngaringombe added.
-lnashuuta@gmil.com