New Era

KEETMANSHOOP – Voters in the Karas Region are expected to vote with “maturity and emotions” in the Presidential and National Assembly elections at the end of this week.

“People are going to think of development and how poverty is affecting them,” commented a source.

“We are sitting with natural resources, but nothing comes to us. This is not an election about the liberation struggle any more. What matters is the fight for development.”

But, said Gabriel Freyer, who works at the Multi-purpose Youth Centre of the Ministry of Youth, National Service, Sport and Culture, political parties have gravely failed in their campaigns to inform voters about what they stand for.

“There is little choice for the conscious voter when it comes to issues such as economic development and education. Parties have not addressed tangible issues. Parties don’t appreciate the intellect of the voters who should know what they are voting for,” said Freyer.

This sentiment was shared by former politician and United Nations petitioner, Charles Hartung, who felt that the political campaigns from both the ruling and opposition parties centred largely on personal grievances and personalised attacks.

“The campaigns were not about policy issues, or about real issues. It is regrettable that there has not been much policy-driven politicking. And yet, what this country urgently needs is poverty alleviation and employment creation. These are the matters that ought to have been unequivocally addressed,” said Hartung.

According to him, the people of the Karas Region are more interested to vote in this election “to bring about change”.

“People here have not been given the best deal. The rural population has benefited little, and more people are willing to say this in the open,” said Hartung.

Freyer commented that the Karas Region has a tendency to vote for opposition parties, where the DTA has formerly won in the rural constituencies, but is doubtful that the ruling party’s support base will be affected.

“But I see a lot of anger and impatience,” said Freyer.

Former governor of the Karas Region, Steve Goliath, said while people are concerned with poverty, and parties have expressed themselves on it, there have not been any indications from these parties of how they will address this matter.

“I think people will therefore stay with the government they know, and while Government has not addressed poverty 100 percent, I think the Swapo Party has done tremendously well, although it needs to seriously improve upon that,” said Goliath.

“There have been many talks where it was said that the south is being marginalised, but I do not hold that view personally,” said Salmaan Jacobs, adding that he does not foresee a change in the previous vote in the region with the Swapo Party winning.

He said that while the Karas rural constituencies may have voted for opposition parties prior to the 2004 election, since then, most votes went to the ruling party.

“I see more people will vote for the ruling party, and I think the majority of voters will cast their votes for President Hifikepunye Pohamba,” said Jacobs.

Parties likely to lose support in the region, said Jacobs, are the Congress of Democrats (CoD) weakened by its leadership division earlier, the DTA, and the Republican Party (RP), with their support likely to swing to the RDP or the Namibia Democratic Party (NDP).

But, said Jacobs and Goliath, support for the Swapo Party will not be affected.

“I don’t think anything will change this election. Swapo will still be victorious; it will still maintain a two-thirds majority. There will be a change in the opposition set up, but nothing will be taken away from Swapo.

Opposition parties take [votes] from each other,” said Goliath.

Goliath added that the RDP is likely to emerge as the next opposition party, a sentiment echoed by Hartung, who said: “I do think the RDP will make a dent in the Swapo Party support base in the southern region.”

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