Erasmus Shalihaxwe and Ester Mbathera
The Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) are racing against time, as the party has yet to hold its nomination conference for prospective National Assembly candidates.
Political parties have until 16 October to submit their nominations for their candidates.
The party’s leader, Epafras Mukwiilongo, on Tuesday told the Windhoek Observer that they are working hard to meet the deadline.
“When we are done with the nominations, we will see when we will launch our party manifesto,” he said.
The NEFF regained its political party status on Monday after the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) announced that it would comply with the High Court’s decision to reinstate it.
This leaves the party with only 15 days to get its house in order if it wants to participate in the presidential and National Assembly elections on November 27.
Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah is of the opinion that the ECN should grant the NEFF an extension to compensate for the lost time to campaign, hold a congress, and engage with their electorate.
“They have been disadvantaged by the error made by the ECN, and I think giving them an extension will be the proper thing to do because in this case, we know that the ECN did not act consistently, and they did not really follow the laws,” he said.
He believes that the ECN should extend the period for NEFF to compensate for the lost opportunities, although it is not a formal court order.
Kamwanyah argues that the ECN has a responsibility to rectify its mistake and ensure that NEFF can fully participate in the political process leading up to the elections.
“To be fair and to at least put them on a level playing field, the ECN must extend the candidacy registration period for NEFF. It’s crunch time for them now, and they deserve a fair chance to recover from this unjust and unfair treatment,” Kamwanyah said.
Kalimbo Iipumbu, the deputy leader of the party, said that his party has always been transparent with its financial statements, which have undergone a proper audit.
“The commission chose a draconian path when there were far more reasonable avenues it could have taken to address any concerns about our audited financial statements. We have been clear from day one that the NEFF has never refused to make its financial statements public, and we emphasise that our statements have been duly audited,” he said.
Iipumbu said the party has maintained that their deregistration was an unjust, stringent, and frivolous act by the ECN.
Days after its deregistration, the party released its audited financial report.
This alone, Iipumbu says, was a demonstration that they have nothing to hide.
“We are guided by the law and have committed to the spirit of accountability and transparency,” he said.
He added that the party’s strength was tested while they were fighting their case with the ECN.
“The faint-hearted pseudo-democrats chose to flee, like rats abandoning a sinking ship, jumping to other political parties, mistakenly believing the battle was lost. We commend all our commissars, our fighters, and our grassroots supporters who chose to remain with us, realising that the struggle was only beginning,” expressed Iipumbu.
He further added that the court victory gave the party more energy than ever to contest the upcoming elections and give the people of Namibia the leadership they deserve.
“Let it be known that no amount of bureaucratic injustice will deter the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters from realising the aspirations of our people. The party is now finalising its manifesto and preparing for the campaign,” he said.
