In anticipation of the regional and local authority elections later this year, political parties have started with their primaries to elect candidates to stand in these. However, primaries of some of the political parties seem too degenerating into political skulduggery, leaving a bad taste and odour, as regards to the quality of democracy.
Accusations have even been flying around, with people being hauled out of watering holes to go and vote for a candidate for the regional elections without regard to these voters as party members. That people of little moral worth will soon be expecting to be called, regarded and treated as honourables is too ghastly to contemplate.
The chicanery in the primaries only make a mockery of the elections at this level, thus even calling into question the quality, calibre and integrity of the candidates. What is most disappointing is that some of those who have been behind such manoeuvres and underhanded dealings are senior cadres of the said political parties, who must strive at giving such a process due respectability.
This situation is not isolated to this or that particular political party, but seems to be the norm in most, if not all, Namibian political parties where blind ambition – sometimes bordering on sheer power hunger rather than public service – prevails.
In most instances the local electorate is used as mere political pawns and voting fodder in this process to advance the ambitions of some unscrupulous elements, who would ordinarily not qualify as dutiful and conscientious candidates and/or as people of good standing in their communities
The outcome, as we have seen in many – if not most – of the regional councils and local authorities, has been mired in self-enrichment schemes, non-delivery of services, incompetence and sheer laziness.
Consequently, inhabitants of these regions, and residents of the cities and towns, have remained impoverished, because of underdevelopment due to the mismanagement, misappropriation and diversion of resources towards parochial ends (if not the pocketed) by those who are supposed to look after the welfare of the people.
That is why the inhabitants of the constituencies and residents of cities and towns should wake up from their seeming slumber and take charge of their regional and local socio-economic destinies.
The road to good governance at the local level, and attendant prosperity and welfare begins nowhere else than with the primaries, where those who stand in such elections (for whatever political party or association) are nominated with due scrutiny.
Only the people can tell which candidates are well-disposed towards such a public calling, based on the track-record of the candidates as far their past contributions towards their communities are concerned.
It is not a matter of political ambition, which hitherto seems to have been motive power behind any candidates’ clamour for nomination, without due regard to her/his capability.
It has also been the norm to replace incumbents, without necessarily looking at their performance while in office.
Those aspiring to public office often feel entitled to occupy it without even being fit to occupy such office by any imaginable criteria.
Come the next election it is automatically assumed that the incumbent must retire just to provide an opportunity to someone else. Even an opportunity for misrule and self-aggrandisement. This has happened at times regardless of the good track record of any sitting candidate, in terms of delivery.
Elections, in Namibia, whether at the local, regional or national level, have at times appeared as a ritual for changing of the guard, no matter how well they may have been performing.
Sometimes it seems that elections are also, and wrongly so, a mechanism for unseating candidates of one political party, or of any ratepayers’ association with that of another political party, or association without any reasonable grounds, especially with regard to delivery or non-delivery.
It appears the reason for this at times is the supposed political correctness of a political party, however dismal the performance of such party in office. At other times, unseating an incumbent, even from same political party is due to some to misguided opinions about her or him.
Even the voters seem to have been taken for a ride by overly ambitious political kingmakers, with hidden parochial political agendas, using their influence within their constituencies, communities, localities, political parties and associations to lay the foundations for their avarice.
The seriousness of the possible consequences of a lack of democracy at this level could not have been more clearly demonstrated by the recent outcomes of the by-election for the Otjiwarongo Constituency, where less than 15% of the voters turned out to vote. Yes, the reasons may be many, but can one exclude undemocratic tendencies?