Members push for Swapo presidential election

WALVIS BAY – Pressure against Swapo is mounting as three members demand the ruling party comply with its own constitution.

Party members Reinhold Shipwikineni, Peter Shituula and Joshua-Vaino Martins have contracted legal practitioner Richard Metcalfe to push for a new president to be elected on or before 4 May 2024.

The ruling party’s top position became vacant after the passing of president Hage Geingob, who died in February following a cancer diagnosis.

According to the party’s constitution, an extraordinary congress must be convened within three months of such a vacancy to elect a new president to serve the remainder of the former president’s term.

However, in March this year, the party indicated that vice president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (NNN) will act as the party’s president until its extraordinary congress is held in April 2025.

Swapo’s constitution states that if the president’s position becomes vacant, for whatever reason, an extraordinary congress shall be called by the central committee within three months of the vacancy occurring to elect a new president to complete the term of the former president, unless that vacancy occurs six months before the ordinary congress.

In such an event, the vice president shall exercise all the powers, duties and functions of the president, pending the election of the president at the ordinary congress.

Hence, Nandi-Ndaitwah will now hold the position of acting party president, along with her duties as vice president.

A statement by the central committee in March noted the party had after elections at the seventh ordinary congress already identified its presidential candidate for the November 2024 presidential elections.

Nandi-Ndaitwah is the vice president in terms of Rules 8, 10 and 53, and public announcements to that effect had long been made.

However, the three party members, through their legal representative, on Friday stated that the central committee’s failure to convene the extraordinary congress within the stipulated timeframe has drawn criticism from aggrieved members.

“Our clients have noted with disdain that the provisions of Article 15(9) of the party’s constitution are simply being ignored and not fulfilled. The central committee has failed in its duty to convene an extraordinary congress to elect a new Swapo party president within three months of the vacancy occurring,” Metcalfe stated on behalf of the three party members.

According to Metcalfe, setting a date for the congress on 19 April 2025, approximately 14 months after the vacancy occurred, contravenes the mandatory provisions of Article 15(9).

The dispute centres on the interpretation of the term “shall” in Article 15(9), which the members assert denotes a mandatory obligation on the part of the central committee to call the extraordinary congress promptly.

“Failure to do so, constitutes a violation of the party’s constitution.

Unless the central committee complies with the Swapo party constitution by calling and convening an extraordinary congress to elect a new party president on or before 4 May 2024, this matter will result in litigation to demand the fulfilment of what is established in the Swapo party constitution,” the letter states.

Questions posed to the Swapo party secretary general, Sophia Shaningwa, are yet to be answered.