Africa-Press – Namibia. Political parties represented in both the National Assembly and National Council will get a combined N$181 million during the current financial year, the finance ministry’s budget shows.
The earmarked amount was revealed by deputy finance minister Maureen Hinda-Mbuende when she motivated the ministry’s budget for the 2024/2025 financial year (FY) earlier this week.
“An allocation of N$181 million has been earmarked for political parties,” Hinda-Mbuende said before explaining the allocation.
She indicated that the allocation serves several important purposes within the democratic framework of Namibia.
“Firstly, the allocation supports the functioning of political parties as essential components of a vibrant democracy. Political parties play a crucial role in representing diverse interests, articulating policy positions and engaging citizens in the political process. The allocation ensures that political parties have the resources necessary to carry out their activities, including organising campaigns, conducting outreach and participating in electoral processes,” she said.
The politician continued: “Secondly, the allocation promotes inclusivity and participation in the political landscape by providing support to a range of political parties.
In a pluralistic democracy like Namibia, where multiple parties compete for representation, it is essential to provide equitable support to ensure fair competition and representation of diverse viewpoints”.
This marks an increase from the N$149.5 million parties received from the Treasury during the 2023/2024 FY. Meanwhile, in 2022/2023, parties got N$103.9 million.
Parties receive funds from the State’s purse based on the number of seats they have in the National Assembly and National Council.
At the moment, a seat in any of the parliamentary houses earns a party over N$1.5 million annually.
Last year, Swapo received N$97.5 million, while the official opposition party, the Popular Democratic Movement, received N$19.5 million.
Bernadus Swartbooi’s Landless People’s Movement received N$10.8 million. Others, such as the United Democratic Front, pocketed N$4.3 million, while the National Unity Democratic Organisation collected N$3.2 million.
Under the stewardship of dentist and lawyer Panduleni Itula’s Independent Patriots for Change, Namibia Economic Freedom Freedom Fighters and All People’s Party each received N$2.2 million.
All parties are expected to receive more during the current financial year as the nation heads to the decisive November poll.
Prohibited
Section 157 of the Electoral Act prohibits funds allocated to a political party from being used directly or indirectly to pay any remuneration, fee, reward, perquisite or other benefit to any person representing the political party in Parliament, any regional council or local authority council who holds any other office of profit at any institution.
Furthermore, Article 140 of the Electoral Act instructs political parties to submit records and audited financial reports to the commission by the end of each financial year.
In terms of declarations of assets and liabilities, political parties are expected to conform to Article 139 of the Electoral Act.
However, most political parties have not been complying with the Act, and they have been accused of diverting taxpayer funds to pay off loans from some party leaders, buy family members cars and pay themselves second salaries, as well as adding associates to the party’s payroll without clear terms of reference.
For instance, IPC bought over a hundred vehicles that cost over N$50 million.
The silence from IPC regarding where the funds originated has been deafening.
Parties, like Swapo, have constructed offices to the tune of N$700 million. It is still not clear how this building was financed.
Meanwhile, the PDM is said to be paying its president McHenry Venaani a second salary with public money, in wanton disregard to the Electoral Act.
Over the past five FYs, political parties have received N$592 million from the Treasury.
Between 2015 and 2020, taxpayers gifted political parties a combined N$679.5 million.
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