Africa-Press – Namibia. One independent candidate and seven political parties will be battling it out in the Swakopmund constituency by-election slated for 12 August 2022.
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) in the attendance of candidates and their party representatives, closed nominations for both political parties and independent candidates on Saturday at 11h00. The by-election came after the IPC in May this year expelled their former member Ciske Smith-Howard, who held the councillor position.
ECN coordinator for Erongo, Amos Nguaiko said the registration process was very slow in the beginning but picked up during the last week when all political parties handed in their nominations.
He added that ECN did not experience any challenges during the nominations and registration process.
“We explained the whole process to all of them when they collected the forms and also double-checked the forms with them when handed in, just to make sure everything is in order,” Nguaiko explained.
“The names of the candidates will be gazetted and then the ballot papers will be printed for the by-election,” he said.
Mineworker Willard Narib will stand as the only independent candidate, while Rodger Dausab will represent the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) and Leilani Pashecka will represent the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM).
Current Swakopmund mayor Louisa Kativa will represent the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) while Swapo will also be represented by one of the former mayors of Swakopmund, Nehemiah Solomon. The United Democratic Front (UDF) candidate is Zerolda Dantu while Bernhard von Seydlitz is the United People Movement (UPM) candidate.
The Landless People’s Movement (LPM) initially indicated that the retired teacher Elizabeth Smith will represent them, however, made a last-minute change and nominated Hilaria Musheka as their candidate.
Asked why the last-minute change yesterday, LPM spokesperson Eneas Emvula said the leadership at large decided to open the contest to all members.
“The candidates were then tasked to present their intervention plan and Musheka happened to be the best candidate as she was more youth focused. However, it should be noted that all these happened before we submitted our nomination to the ECN,” he explained. He added that it was a sober decision and there is mutual consensus among all party members.
Meanwhile, ECN last week announced that the provisional voters roll for the Swakopmund constituency is 36 997, after the conclusion of the supplementary registration of voters that took place earlier this month and recorded 1 716 eligible voters.
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