Taxpayers splash N$590m on political parties
OVER the past five years, political parties represented in Parliament have received a cumulative N$592 million from Treasury, based on the seats they have in the country’s bicameral parliament system, official documents reveal.
This is despite the fact that without the requisite powers to keep parties in check, there is little to no accountability for how these millions of taxpayer dollars are expended, the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has conceded.
As such, most parties spent the millions at a whim, including on nice-to-have items such as purchasing vehicles for leaders and their spouses; dishing out loans; paying leaders double salaries; and, in some instances, paying politicians whose roles have been reduced to sitting at home since being ejected from the National Assembly about two years ago.
Some parties are also using taxpayer funds to reward their politicians for party work, a direct contravention of the Electoral Act of 2014, which directs how funding received from the State purse may be used.
It says funds allocated to a political party may not be used directly or indirectly for the purposes of paying any remuneration, fee, reward, perquisite or other benefits to any person representing the political party in parliament, any regional council, or local authority council. The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) has been using taxpayers’ funds to repay monies it reportedly borrowed from its politicians to finance its political activities between 2013 and 2019, it was reported.