Staff Reporter
THE United Peoples Movement (UPM) is requesting all opposition political parties that are interested in working together in an Alliance to contest the upcoming 2024 Presidential and National Assembly elections as a united front to urgently approach the party for coalition talks to defeat Swapo.
The UPM is a coalition party of the PDM in the National Assembly but contested against its alliance partner in the Swakopmund by-election where the party secured a draw with the NEFF for the last place.
In a political irony, Jan van Wyk (MP) and President of the UPM party in a press statement said that the UPM has taken note of what is transpiring in the political sphere with regards to the preparations of various political parties gearing towards the upcoming election year 2024.
” The UPM still believes that a united opposition would have a better chance in unseating the ruling party come 2024. However, the fact that the three opposition parties have decided to contest separately, already strengthens the ruling party’s grip come 2024” Van Wyk opined.
The rest of the Statement reads:
” The just ended by-election in the Moses //Garoëb constituency alludes to signs of a decline in support for opposition political parties, this decline can be seen as being caused by the regular infighting, disagreements and failure to reach consensus between opposition parties in coalitions/alliances which should be for the benefit of the voters that put them in office. Another factor for the decline in support is the ever increasing, but ever failing Independent candidate syndrome which does more harm than good, due to its promotion of a one-man show. Although in line with legislation, Independent Candidacy is built on the premise that an individual can bring true change to a Nation alone without others, this can be regarded a fallacy and a pipe dream and would leave many a voter disappointed at the lack of performance and influence after being unceremoniously deprived of needed funds from central Government which is currently the case with all opposition controlled Local Authority and Regional Authority Council’s.
Indeed, the just ended election would have given a perfect opportunity for opposition parties to work together in taking away the constituency from the ruling party, but leaders opted otherwise.
The UPM will soon conduct its Congress at which strategies for the 2024 Elections would be put in motion. The UPM will not contest Presidential Elections but will, depending on the situation on the ground during the UPM 2024 Election Crusade decide on which opposition presidential candidate to support and inform its members accordingly. The UPM is however open for discussions to form an alliance with other political parties who are interested in doing so.
It is however important that such negotiations start as soon as possible due to the various processes agreements and requirement that need to be met with the Electoral Commission of Namibia.
The UPM is of the opinion that in order to save what is left of the resources still available, that Opposition parties must find consensus in its goal of occupying the role of Governing the Namibian nation. Since the devastating effect of COVID 19 hit the Namibian nation, nothing has been done to curb the ever increasing misery caused to the Namibian Nation, instead the onus is left to burden the Namibian people with the bill for the impact caused by COVID 19 with an increase across the board for utilities, petrol, food prices, and the like.
More evidence of the failure of the current Government is the lack of accountability to hold those responsible for mismanagement of Government resources accountable which is now becoming a daily news headline, the failure rate within the newly imposed curriculum for school going learners, the failure to provide necessary medical treatment and medication to needy patients, who may otherwise perish without the services of the state due to inability to afford private medical care, the increase in the cost of utilities by local authorities, the increase of petrol prices which directly influences the sharp increase in inflation and this all we condone because we don’t unite in one common goal.
A more needed ideological consensus needs to be that Namibia being a Christian nation needs to increase its demand for social justice and the empowerment of the youth, and not just making use of young people to promote an ideology but to truly empower young people to occupy spheres of influence such as medical, education, finance, law etc. and that ideology to be perpetuated by specifically God fearing Christians. The formation of the new political party “Body for Christ” is an indication the church is more prepared to stand up to address issues relating to social justice and equality.
The youth are faced with various problem’s which the UPM is convinced can only be clarified by the youth if given an opportunity if given the opportunity. The UPM is pleased with youth representation at its various branches and would urge the youth to get into the UPM structures and work on a future for themselves. The UPM is convinced that about 70% of its candidates for the 2024 elections would be from its youth cadre. The UPM encourages and invites People living with disabilities and people from marginalized communities to join the UPM as there is a need for them to be represented.
Finally, the UPM is therefore requesting all opposition political parties that are interested in working together in an Alliance to contest the upcoming 2024 Presidential and National Assembly elections under an umbrella body to approach the UPM urgently for possible negotiations. The alliance and umbrella body should allow for the keeping of individual identities and representation in Parliament, however with one common goal., Van Wyk says.
