WINDHOEK – All People’s Party (APP) president Ignatius Shixwameni says there was no need for the recent increase in the number of parliamentary seats.
Shixwameni says Namibia already has “too many” lawmakers. He was referring to the Third Constitutional Amendment Bill that will result in the number of National Assembly seats being increased to 96 from the present 72 while the National Council will see its legislators increase to 42 from 26. Addressing a recent press briefing, Shixwameni said the extra money that would be required for the additional parliamentary seats could have been used to remedy the country’s social deficit.
“We have too many MPs for the size of this population. The funds for paying additional parliamentarians and funding of the new bigger parliament could be well spent on solving our country’s social deficit and other problems facing our nation and people,” said Shixwameni.
During its recent convention where its members were elected as candidates for the party’s parliamentary list, APP decided it would only have 72 candidates on its parliamentary list instead of 96.
This, according to Shixwameni, was done deliberately in protest of government’s decision to increase the size of parliament from 72 to 96 – which he says will put pressure on taxpayers in regard to the heavy salary bill and the benefits bill for legislators.
“In the APP we strongly feel this is an unnecessary and luxurious expense which our nation can ill-afford given major problems of unemployment, lack of descent housing, failing healthcare and education systems and many others which our nation is saddled with currently,” said the former Swapo member.
APP also claimed senior government officials on the Swapo National Assembly list “abuse government vehicles and facilities” to campaign for Swapo.
“We have noted with great concern that quite a number of senior civil servants on the Swapo parliamentary list abuse and misuse government vehicles for Swapo campaign purposes. I hope that journalists will be monitoring and taking photos of government vehicles at Swapo rallies and interview such drivers. We also hope the Ant-Corruption Commission and the Namibian Police will as a question of impartiality arrest the culprits and take steps against them as per the laws of the land,” Shixwameni said.
APP also called on senior servants who are on the Swapo list to immediately take leave from their positions in the civil service or alternatively resign from their jobs.
“Let them come clear that they have joined the political arena and become politicians and can therefore no longer be objective and non-partisan public servants,” said Shixwameni.
With the election date yet to be declared, he called upon President Hifikepunye Pohamba to announce the polling date as a matter of urgency.
“Let the president not keep the nation and other competing political parties in the dark, whilst Swapo leaders and the party are privy to the nomination secretly,” Shixwameni said.
“As for the ECN, we would like to urge the ECN commissioners, management of the ECN and all employees to conduct themselves impartially and non-partisan at all times. We condemn in the strongest way, the stories of ECN employees using their time to campaign for Swapo. If they want to be Swapo political mobilizers then let them resign and be free to campaign for Swapo and not use their positions as ECN officials to campaign in disguise for Swapo thus confusing and intimidating the rural masses, particularly the elderly and the illiterate,” he said.