Let the ‘Battle of Okahandja’ start

Let the ‘Battle of Okahandja’ start

By: CHRISTOF MALETSKY

TOMORROW the traditional hope of the oppressed, Swapo, will come up against a coalition of the wounded as Okahandja residents decide on a new regional councillor for the ‘garden town’.

It will be an historic election in many respects.
Although coalition politics has become an almost inevitable practice in many parliamentary democracies in the world, Namibian politicians have evaded it for some time now. This was mainly because of historical reasons as some parties certainly had a hand in the oppression of the people before Independence.
Tomorrow an alliance of diametrically opposed parties will square up against Swapo to try and wrestle the constituency away from the ruling party and send a message out that they are ready to mount a serious challenge come the November regional elections.
It seems that the opposition in the coalition have found a hero and saviour in Rally for Democracy and Progress leader, Hidipo Hamutenya. In fact, Congress of Democrats’ MP Elma Dienda called him their messiah at the weekend’s rally.
Hamutenya himself made no secret of the fact that the main goal was to capture power throughout Namibia and shape the direction the country will take over the coming years.
Although the RDP, at formation, had proclaimed that they (as a party) would defeat Swapo and run the country, anyone but a blind man could have seen the writing on the wall about them taking a u-turn and approaching others to form a coalition.
For now, only a coalition can put up a meaningful challenge to Swapo.
From attending their last rally, I have noticed that the language and tactics of the alliance partners have already become virtually indistinguishable - CoD leaders called their counterparts in RDP and UDF ‘comrades’.
A vibrant multi-party opposition is crucial for Namibia’s democracy but I wonder how long it will take before cracks appear over the selection of candidates, the level of the playing field (platform), various political tactics and approaches to issues.
For instance, although the coalition agreed on putting up the RDP person as their candidate, the posters branded around down were more RDP than anything else. There was no way a Republican Party member could identify with the candidate by looking at the poster.
In addition, the way in which the candidate was decided on - apparently her name was announced while some other parties were still busy with internal consultations - could also be a stumbling block in the future.
RDP must take care not to be seen to be pushing their agenda or being bullish in their approach on this one.
The coalition needs to identify the best candidate in a constituency based on merit and not on the basis of the party such a person belongs to, or the financial muscle of the political party in question. In the process they could also even involve ‘apoliticals’ who have proven to be good administrators and, in the process, avoid independents splitting their vote as will happen tomorrow.
Soon the new National Assembly will (hopefully) be sworn in and as new brooms clean the best, we expect heated debates!
It will be interesting to see how the opposition will handle some debates because, while they may have united in their campaign to dethrone Swapo during the November elections, they could also differ on some fundamental issues during such debates. And they’ll be watched with an eagle’s eye in this regard!
While the coalition still needs to iron out finer details about their approach to the November election, there was hardly any time for elaborate preparations for tomorrow’s battle in Okahandja.
With four candidates in the line-up for tomorrow and the opposition still split (Swanu have their own candidate also), I expect Swapo to stroll the last 30 metres of the 100 metre sprint to the finish line.

* This article first appeared in The Namibian