Martin Endjala
Three political parties that have not been participating in elections since 2014 are on the verge of de-registration and have since been summoned by the Electoral Commission of Namibia.
The ECN has threatened to show the door to the three dormant political parties, the Democratic Coalition of Namibia (DCN), the Federal Convention of Namibia (FNC) and the Namibian Democratic Movement for Change (NMDC), who have been observed not to be participating in any elections since 2014.
The ECN has given the parties until the end of June to pronounce their status. The ECN said it has made a call to the political parties’ representatives.
Speaking to the Windhoek Observer yesterday, the ECN’s Corporate Communications and Marketing Manager, De Wet Siluka reiterated that the three dormant political parties have until the end of June to pronounce their status and failure to do so will result in them being deregistered.
Siluka said that in terms of Section 152(b) of the Electoral Act, the Commission has the right to cancel any political party if a registered political party has at any time after its registration failed to participate in and promote an election as contemplated in Section 135(2) (a) of the act.
Siluka added that the ECN’s efforts to trace the parties’ whereabouts proved futile as the information provided to it is outdated, hence the public call.
Section 135 (1) of the Electoral Act No. 5 of 2014, provides for every citizen of Namibia a right to establish and join a political party or organization of his/her choice. However, subsection (2) (a) of the provision stipulates that the principles of the object of a political party must be to participate in and promote election as provided in the Act.
“Without the relevant contact details, it makes it very hard to trace the dormant parties, especially when one of the three party’s Democratic Coalition of Namibia founded in 1994 is reported to have been dissolved in 2009 and changed into Namibia Patriotic Front,” Siluka added.
Furthermore, the Namibia Democratic Movement for Change was founded in 2003 and contested the 2004 election, but only received 4138 votes, short of the minimum needed for a seat in the National Assembly. The party was founded in October under the umbrella of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance but left it before the 2004 election due to an internal power struggle.
In January 2008, the NMDC leader was Frans Goagoseb.
In January 2009, the party’s leader was Joseph Kauandenge who is the current Secretary General of the National Unity Democratic Organization (NUDO) and member of parliament.
Kauandnege yesterday confirmed that he is aware of the party, but denied ever being its leader. He added that he was the party’s, Secretary General.
“The party belonged to Frans Mikub and I only joined his party at the time, but it was not my party per se,” Kauandenge explained.
According to him, the party is no longer active and that it had ‘died a natural death’.
Meanwhile, the Federal Convention of Namibia (FNC) is a political party based in Rehoboth created in the wake of Namibian independence in 1988 by a merger of several smaller parties and gained a seat in the Namibian Constituent Assembly. It also ran results in 1994 and 1999, and it ceased to be publicly active.
