RUNDU – A newly formed association, known as the Rundu Urban Community Association (RUCA), based in Rundu, has announced it will take part in the upcoming regional and local authority elections slated for November this year.

RUCA, at a media conference on Thursday, announced that early this year, it applied with the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to take part in the upcoming elections.

The association’s technical chairperson, Nico Ndumba, said RUCA received a response from the commission on 24 July, saying it resolved the association’s application fulfilled all the legal requirements of Section 148 of the Electoral Act 5 of 2014 to be registered as an organisation for the Rundu local authority.

“The association will defend and protect the rights of all the inhabitants in the Rundu Urban constituency regardless of gender, ethnicity, political affiliation and religion,” said Ndumba.

He explained that RUCA was established earlier this year by community members in the surrounds of the Rundu Urban constituency, after which the association was registered with ECN.

The association will only contest in the Rundu Urban constituency and not in other localities in the Kavango East region, Ndumba noted.

“We are going to contest and take over Rundu Urban and make sure that the dignity of the people in that constituency is restored,” the technical chairperson said.

ECN spokesperson Vikitoria Hango on Friday confirmed RUCA’s application for registration, saying the association is not officially registered yet, but a government notice in terms of section 148 (7) of the Electoral Act has been drafted and will be submitted to the directorate of legislative drafting in the Ministry of Justice.

“The Ministry of Justice will scrutinise the draft and when the application is approved and certified by them, a date will be secured at the government gazette office for publication,” she explained.

Hango said it should be noted that the government gazette office needs a 14-day notice period before a government notice is published.

“In terms of section 148 (8) of the Electoral Act, the notice will lie for introspection for a period of 30 days from the date of publication for lodging of objections,” she said. – Nampa