Regional observers in Namibia - Elections '99 - Sustainable Democracy

WINDHOEK, 29 November 1999
A confluence of regional observers is breaking new ground in cross-border election monitoring-three prominent groups are in Namibia ahead of the
country's third democratic polls as part of a long term Southern African initiative.

The Parliamentarians from 12 countries under the banner of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) parliamentary Forum have scattered to three strategic regions of Namibia in an exercise designed to strengthen regional cooperation and enhance democratisation among member states.

And the SADC Electoral Commission's Forum,a union of the region's election management bodies, which has maintained a presence in all elections in
southern Africa this year, is also in Namibia.

They are complimented by more than 200 observors and monitors-local and regional- from the non-govermental sector.

For the first time, SADC is witnessing an evolutionary trend in regional intergration, with formal structures at governmental and non governmental levels taking precedence over missions from overseas.

Teams from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) and the Commonwealth have arrived-observers are spreading across key areas of Namibia's 824,269sq
kilometres expanse, to capture the pulse of this vast land.

Namibia's ruling party SWAPO and its President Sam Nujoma are tipped to win the elections to be held over two days, November 30 and December 1. But a much stronger opposition challenge is expected from the newly formed Congress of Democrats(COD), led by former deputy minister and SWAPO Central
committee member Ben Ulenga. In the 1994 elections, SWAPO was retained with a two thirds majority in parliament.

"The issue of democratisation is one area of critical concern to us", said SADC Parliamentary Forum Secretary-General Kasuka Mutukwa, briefing a team
of regional journalists from Swaziland, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

"There is a lot we can learn from each other. Our observer teams consist of elected members of parliament and the experience will empower them with practical knowledge of elections in other member states", he said.

The parliamentarians, he said, were complimenting the role of the Electoral Commissions to sustain SADC's decade-old pluralist culture.

The Observer team, consisting of members of parliament from Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe are drawn from both ruling and opposition parties. A similar contingent has been despatched to Mozambique for the December 3,4 elections.

The Parliamentary observer teams will report their findings to a plenary Assembly of national parliaments embracing twelve Speakers and 36 MPs, to be held in Namibia on 14 -16 December.

"Monitoring elections by neighbours may not only contribute to transparency in electoral systems but, it could also build confidence and legitimacy in
elections as a good means of choosing leaders", Mutukwa told the eight senior journalists covering the elections under the Southern African Research and Documentation Centre (SARDC)'s USAID funded democracy programme.

In an equally supportive gesture, the South African Independent Electoral Commission has supplied 40 computer terminals and other electronic gadgets
to Namibia's Results Centre.

South Africa, in June this year, accomplished perhaps the most technologically advanced coverage of elections ever held in Africa and its role in assisting other SADC countries achieve that standard is seen as critical by senior electoral experts.

"The South Africans assisted us with computers; they are teaching us so that we may also assist other SADC countries. A whole lot of SADC countries can
assist each other", said Peter Mietzner Chief Media Liaison Officer for Namibia's Electoral Commission.

With 850,000 registered voters from a population estimated at 1.6 million, the Electoral Commission has enlisted the participation of 95 percent of all
eligible voters, he said. The figure is higher than the 620,000 recorded in 1994 and Mietzner attributed this to a drive targetted at the majority under 25s who form 60 percent of the population.

Results will be coming in December 2, he said, from 102 constituencies in 13 regions, flashed on the results centre's electronic screens and on national
television by the moment.

On the political front, the Congress of Democrats(CoD), born of disagreements within SWAPO is opposed to Nujoma's third attempt at
presidential office and has campaigned around this and Namibia's involvement in the war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo(DRC).

The national assembly, dominated by SWAPO with 53 of the 78 seats, amended the constitution to allow a third term for Nujoma, agreeing with the argument that the president was indirectly elected by a constituent Assembly in Namibia's 1989 pre-independence elections.

The constitution provides for the direct election of its president by the people but also limits the term of office to two years. SWAPO argued through the legislature that technically,Nujoma faced his first legitimate election by direct vote in the 1994 polls.

Namibia operates a list proportional representation system for parliamentary and the winner-take-all system for presidential elections.

The ruling party has carefully skated around potential trouble spots, bringing calm, albeit uneasily, to the secessionist situation in the Caprivi region and decampaigning the relatively weak eight opposition parties contesting this election, for lack of focus. (SARDC)