WINDHOEK – The United Democratic Front of Namibia (UDF) is “stronger than ever” and ready to contest the Presidential and National Assembly elections later this month, party president, Apius !Auchab, said yesterday. 

According to !Auchab, the party is also in a powerful position to increase its current two seats in the National Assembly to 15. 

!Auchab, who took over the party presidency from Gaob Justus //Garoëb in 2013, said his party has been campaigning around the clock and throughout the country ahead of the general election. 
“Today, we are very strong as an opposition party. Stronger than ever, we are planning to have rallies in the north, Ongwediva, Omaheke and everywhere across the country, unlike in the past, where our focus was only in Kunene and Erongo,” said an upbeat !Auchab. 

In the 2014 National Assembly election, UDF received 18 945 votes, translating in two parliamentary seats. 
The party did not field a candidate in the presidential election in that year, as //Garoëb asked the party faithful to instead vote for Swapo leader and eventual winner, President Hage Geingob. 
!Auchab yesterday explained the decision to support Geingob in 2014 was //Garoëb’s personal decision and not that of the party. 

He said UDF, just like any other political organisation, aspires to run the country and not to be followers.
“We will surprise many in this year’s election; just wait! Elections are not on Facebook,” he exclaimed.
For the 2020 regional and local authority elections, the party once again aims to recapture its traditionally stronghold of Khorixas that it lost to Swapo during the 2015 polls.

He said his party does not make promises, but commitments to the Namibian people.
“Essential to our programme is a struggle for democratic ownership and control of the key means of production by the people,” he asserted. He said UFF believes it is only through transformation that the party will end the suffering of the Namibian people. 

“When we make commitments to fight for minimum wages for all, we, as UDF, will use our organisational and mobilisation capacity to deliver on all our commitments,” he affirmed.
He said once elected into power, the UDF will mobilise each society to play a meaningful role in transforming Namibia for the betterment of all.

“Employment into senior positions of the UDF government will not be based on whether a person is a member of UDF or not, but on their skills, education, qualification and expertise in the particular field,” he clarified. “Thousands of our mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, uncles and aunts have sacrificed their precious lives for the freedom of this country, but there is nothing to show for it.”