Lahja Nashuuta

THE Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has rejected the United People’s Movement and National Empowerment Fighting Corruption’s application to contest the upcoming Presidential and National Assembly elections as an alliance, under an umbrella called Alliance Christian Democratic Organisation (ACDO).

UPM and NEFC recently formed a political coalition with the purpose of bringing up a stronger front to support independent candidate Ally Angula in the upcoming elections in November this year. 

According to the coalition agreement, both parties agree not to field a candidate to contest the November presidential race, and to allow their members and sympathisers to vote for Angula.

In the ECN letter penned by Petrus Shaama, ECN’s chief electoral and referenda officer, to the two parties and seen by New Era, the commission indicates that the formation of the new political organisation is not in compliance with Electoral Act because it sounds like a new political party and goes against Article 144 of the Act.

Article 144 of the Electoral Act stipulates that “if two or more registered political parties form an alliance of their parties, each party remains as a separate registered political party  and that  each candidate must  in any election concerned be personally identified on the ballot paper by the symbol of his or her political party accompanied  by a remark or symbol the commission may think necessary to identify the candidate as belonging to an alliance of political parties,” the act reads.

It further indicates that if two or more registered political parties merge as one party “the registration of each party existing immediately before the effective date of the merger lapses; and the new party is required to be registered for the purposes of this Act.”

In the letter, Shaama further indicates that the two parties have provided a new distinctive symbol, which is not in compliance with the act as it also symbolises a new political party.

The new alliance’s spokesperson, UPM president Jan van Wyk confirmed receiving the ECN letter, however he denied that ECN rejected the intended formation of the alliance and submission, stating the ECN only has a problem with the alliance logo.

“ECN did not reject the intended formation of our alliance but what they are saying is that the logo we propose does not comply with the electoral law. We need to look at providing them with a new logo and new name. The other question they had was regarding our alliance with PDM. We hope to have a meeting on Tuesday with our alliance partners to finalise the proposed logo and name and also to answer the issue with regard to our alliance agreement with PDM,” Van Wyk said.

According to the UPM-NEFC coalition agreement, on the ballot paper, ACDO will be represented by a white cross symbol with a light blue trim with an abbreviation ACDO in red, surrounded by a light blue circle. The logos of the participating parties will also feature under the cross within the circle.

The commission has requested the two parties to ratify the alliance agreement for it to be in line with the electoral act in terms of alliance of registered political parties.

Besides that, the commission has also asked the UPM to clarify the coalition agreement with  the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) signed on 28 August 2019 and supposed to expire in March 2025.

“On our record, it is also a known fact that your party is in alliance with the PDM, kindly enlighten our office on that aspect, what is going to happen to such agreement,” the letter reads.

Coalitions on both national and local level in Namibia have had limited success so far. New Era spoke to various political commentators on what the failed coalition between the UPM and PDM that has led to UPM lawmakers being kicked out of Parliament mean for the possibility of opposition parties challenging Swapo’s domination in the upcoming elections.

“It is another indication that the opposition is fragmented and will not pose a serious challenge to Swapo. The political landscape remains fertile ground for any opposition party or candidate whose message of positive transformation resonates with the undecided and disillusioned electorate” said Rui Tyitende.

Tyitende said it is unfortunate that an alternative is not forthcoming in Namibia  body politics as the salience of ethnicity and regionalism reigns supreme when it comes to aligning with political parties and ultimately casting a vote.

“The opposition do not have a clear strategy on how to unplug Swapo from power and this has nothing to do with ideas or policies, but simply on positions and access to resources. If the status quo prevails, Swapo will continue to dominate the political scene regardless of their policy incompetence and mismanagement of the economy” Tyitende said. 

Natjirikasorua Tjirera, another political analyst and lawyer was of the opinion that coalitions are formed or should rather be formed along principled lines and that parties should be guided by principles rather than the singular desire to unseat Swapo if they want to succeed with coalitions. 

“It has been proven in this country that coalitions that are singularly aimed at defeating Swapo have failed. Parties should know what they want to achieve, they should also know how they want to achieve what they want. Only then can the parties think of negotiating any coalition deal. The parties should first decide on the principles that will govern their coalition and the ideological basis of their coalition before anything,” Tjirera said.

He further said: “It is, however, unfortunate that current Namibian politics is not based on political ideology and political principles but it’s a matter of personalities trying to outsmart one another without providing tangible solutions and or alternatives to the ruling party’s myriad of problems. For as long as coalitions are guided by the singular desire to defeat Swapo and not what the parties to the coalition want to achieve, it will end up in failure like all the rest have,” Tjirera maintains.

Ndumba Kamwanyah shared the same sentiment stating that the coalition and alliances among the political parties should not be based on the desire to overthrow the Swapo party from the government.

“The coalition and alliances should be driven by the common interests such as service delivery, good governance to make sure that the coalition led government will be effective and improve the living conditions of people in a tangible manner. 

We have seen the coalition led teams at municipal level and the broken marriages that give negative image for any coalition led arrangements, people are starting to lose interest in the  coalition led politics but in general is good that small parties pool resources and join efforts together and became strong but the ventures must be based on commitment and common interest” Kamwanyah said.

-lnashuuta@gmail.com

(ECN)