Nuusita Ashipala
Ongwediva
The Swapo Party Youth League (SPYL) in Oshana Region has annulled all its party district elections after allegedly detecting numerous irregularities at the conferences that elected the district leadership.
The nullification of all district elections in the region was announced at a press conference on Friday.
Although there are allegations that a plot is underway to oust newly elected Oshakati West district treasurer Paulus Paulus, known to be a vocal Affirmative Repositioning activist, the Oshana SPYL has maintained it is not the case.
According to those in the know, elections of Oshakati West were annulled because of an absence of an attendance register of which branches and how many delegates from the various branches were represented at the district conference.
It is also further alleged that there was no pioneer representative elected, which is claimed to be a prerequisite.
Other annulled elections include those of Okatyali and Ondangwa Rural.
The Okatyali elections are alleged to have been unprocedural because they were done by show of hands and not by ballot.
The way forward for Ondangwa Rural district is still under discussion because the current leadership have only been in office for a year. The district is said to have been without leadership for a while until last year.
Chairperson of the SPYL national leaders assigned to Oshana Region Sioni Iikela has contested the nullification.
Iikela requested the regional executive committee (NEC) to avail reports of the district conferences completed so far as well as the minutes of the discussions of the conference reports.
“Those minutes should spell out grounds of irregularities which warrant nullification of the district conferences as per your press conference. Further kindly indicate which structure of the SPYL empowered you to nullify the district conferences,” Iikela wrote.
In the absence of such information to NEC, Iikela said the nullification is irregular and unconstitutional.
Emanuel Aron who was chairing the press conference on Friday said that Iikela being a leader assigned to Oshana is doing a great job in guiding those under his leadership.
“We will report to him. If we are then found not to be in line with what is supposed to be done, we will comply with the directive. In the very same manner we also want the districts to comply. It is a matter of correcting one another, we are not immune to making mistakes,” said Aron.