Following the swearing-in of two new Popular Democratic Movement members as Members of Parliament yesterday, United People’s Movement president Jan
van Wyk has vowed to do whatever it takes to prove that the PDM violated their agreement, and not the UPM.
Chief Justice Peter Shivute swore in PDM members Katrina Benz and Loide Iipinge in the National Assembly, replacing Van Wyk and fellow UPM member Frans Bertolini.
National Assembly Speaker Peter Katjavivi announced in parliament on Tuesday that the PDM had written to his office, requesting for Van Wyk and Bertolini to be withdrawn from parliament after the UPM broke a 2019 contract between them and the PDM when the UPM last week publicly backed independent presidential candidate Ally Angula for the 2024 Presidential election.
The UPM-PDM alliance was formed in 2019 in a bid to win the 2019 Presidential and National Assembly elections.
“The swearing-in of their members is of course illegal. Our question is: why are these people in a hurry? We received the notice late last Monday, the withdrawal of UPM members was done yesterday (Tuesday), and the swearing-in of the new members was done today (Wednesday),” he told New Era upon enquiry yesterday. “We have consulted different legal people, and they made it clear to us that the UPM did not violate any legal agreement.
There is no other agreement that says in 2024 the UPM should promote the PDM, and that both parties should vote for Venaani. So, they are out of order. The other question is why the Speaker failed to seek a legal opinion on this. We know why he did that.”
“We will do what we can to prove that the PDM in fact violated the agreement, and not the UPM. So, what the PDM is doing is to cut out our State funds from
the government because we will not have money for campaigns. They are doing that because of the fear they have for the new alliance, and for Ally Angula. We have campaigned before without resources, and we are prepared to do that again.”
“We will go the legal route. The only thing for now is that we have limited financial resources, and that would make it difficult
for us to fight them. If we had money, we could be in court already. I am very disappointed in the leadership of the PDM because I trusted them with my heart… We were supposed to fight Swapo, but now we must fight Swapo and the PDM,” stated Van Wyk.
The PDM-UPM alliance agreement
came into force on 28 August 2019, and is expected to expire in 2025.
According to the agreement, both parties agreed to support PDM presidential candidate McHenry Venaani.
As part of the coalition agreement,
the UPM also agreed not to contest for National Assembly seats, but to rather join the PDM in canvassing votes for both the Presidential and National Assembly elections. Through this electoral joint venture, the two parties secured 16 seats in parliament.
Van Wyk reiterated that the agreement was signed specifically for the 2019/2020 elections.
“The PDM is out of order, and their request to withdraw the honourable members would imply that in no way did the UPM contribute to the success of
the 2019/2020 elections, although the
parties were in an alliance showing their support, canvassing members and
mobilising voters for the alliance,” Van Wyk continued. He further claimed that the PDM did not become the official opposition on their own, and it was also the contribution of the UPM and its members which made it possible to become the official opposition.
Van Wyk maintained that his party has
the right to operate as an individual party and maintain its identity as per section
144 (1)(a) of their alliance agreement, and therefore cannot be subject to another party on its movements, plans and campaign strategies.