RUNDU – Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) president Mike Kavekotora has been re-elected to lead the party for another five years. He was re-elected during the party’s convention at Rundu over the weekend.
Re-elected alongside him was party vice president Kennedy Shekupakela. Both were uncontested.
The party also elected Cicil Nguuvauva as secretary general and deputy secretary general Metumo Nghiimwena, completing the top four leadership positions of the RDP.
About 550 delegates from across the 14 political regions descended on Rundu over the weekend to chart their party’s future.
“At the beginning of the convention, we went through a central committee report to the convention, which is the highest organ, basically covering the period from 2 June 2019 to the current situation, where we highlighted a number of issues and challenges that were faced by the party, ranging from the court challenges that were lodged by Kandy Nehova to financial constraints as a result of the Covid-19 and as a result of the court cases and so forth,’’ Kavekotora said.
“In that report, we also reported to the convention, which is the highest organ of the party, about the way forward in terms of our campaign strategy to basically make a significant impact in the upcoming elections,” said the former parliamentarian.
By the end of their gathering, RDP members are expected to select the new central committee that will be steering this party for the next five years.
Once this is complete, they will move to the electoral college to identify prospective parliamentarians.
“The electoral college is composed of all central committee members – 20 members from each region, the youth and the women’s league – and after that, we will prepare to submit our names to the Electoral Commission of Namibia, and make sure that from now on, we go into the campaign gear to engage the nation to vote for us,’’ he said.
On his re-election, Kavekotora had this to say: “I think it’s a performance indicator that got me re-elected because since I took over the party under difficult circumstances, that was when we had several clashes within the leadership of the party. I managed to keep the party together. I also managed to grow the party quite significantly to the point that you see some of our old members who had run to other political parties coming back home. It is also an exciting moment for me to be given another mandate”.