Windhoek
Representatives from five opposition parties formed the biggest coalition ever in the country when they signed a memorandum of understanding over the weekend for the upcoming elections.
The coalition consists of Nudo, the Congress of Democrats (CoD), Republican Party (RP), National Democratic Party (NDP) and the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP).
The coalition was announced at a news conference in Windhoek on Saturday morning and hopes to give the ruling Swapo Party a run for its money during the regional council and local authority elections on November 27.
Representatives from CoD did not attend the signing ceremony, but are expected to sign at a later stage.
According to the MoU, the parties will not contest in the same constituencies and urge their supporters to vote for any of the five parties that appear on the ballot paper.
As for the local authority elections, each party will contest on its own. According to the group, the decision to form a coalition was to prevent Namibia from becoming a one-party state, because of the dominance of the ruling party.
“What we are seeing is not ideal, because we are moving closer to becoming a one-party state and multi-party democracy is under serious threat,” RDP secretary general Mike Kavekotora said. He accused Swapo of being too powerful and arrogant.
“Arrogant in the sense that priority needs are not being attended to because government is doing only what it wants to. Even during the periods of drought, resources are spent on projects and programmes that have nothing to do with improving the lives of our people during such devastating times,” he said.
Kavekotora fears that opposition parties might become irrelevant in Namibia, hence the need for a coalition.
“To salvage democracy we needed to do this, because there is no justification to have 16 political parties in a country as small as Namibia,” he said.
Kavekotora is also not impressed with the business community in the country, saying they too are responsible for the decline of multi-party democracy.
“They only support the ruling party, instead of spreading the resources,” he said.
NDP president Martin Lukato Lukato said the opposition would only be able to provide a serious challenge to the ruling party if they are united. “People will come to you to buy your votes with food and T-shirts. Those are your own resources that they have stolen. Take those resources, but reject such parties on polling day,” he said.
Lukato also urged voters to report any officials using government vehicles for campaign purposes.
“We call on the Anti-Corruption Commission to arrest these people, because they are stealing and misusing the resources of the State,” he charged.
With just over three weeks to go before polling day, opposition parties are likely to face an uphill battle to present a formidable challenge to the ruling party, especially after last year’s sumptuous victory, in which Swapo scored 80 percent of the votes in the National Assembly elections.
Swapo is also the only party that will be contesting all 121 constituencies. In fact, the ruling party has already secured 26 constituencies, because no other party fielded candidates there.