Opposition party cancels rallies citing intimidation

A major opposition party created by politicians who broke away from the ruling Southwest Africa Peoples Organisation (SWAPO) earlier this year said on Monday it had been forced to cancel a number of rallies because of alleged intimidation by SWAPO activists. With less than 10 days to go before the country’s third presidential and parliamentary elections since independence from South Africa in 1990, the Congress of Democrats (CoD) said it had been forced to cancel election rallies in the country’s most populated four northern districts. Tsudao Gurirab, the CoD secretary-general, told IRIN that SWAPO supporters had repeatedly disrupted rallies in the north: “We have had two incidents of physical violence, but fortunately, very fortunately, no deaths or serious injuries. We are determined to avoid violence of any kind at all costs, and this is why we called the meetings off in the north. We have had no problems campaigning in the south or in the main urban areas.” Asked why SWAPO supporters had disrupted their meetings, he said, “it is because our leader Ben Ulenga, myself and others, come from SWAPO itself. We have the same roots, and we fought in the liberation war. They are scared of us. We have a strong constituency, especially among the younger generation.” He said the party was campaigning for fairer distribution of wealth, poverty alleviation and a stronger democracy: “Having attained independence more than a generation after the rest of Africa, we feel we should be a leading country of what we call the New Africa. This is why we feel President Sam Nujoma has been wrong to seek a third term by changing the constitution and breaking the undertaking he had with the country. We also feel it is wrong that our country sent intervention troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) without consulting the nation. We do not want to become another Zimbabwe.” An estimated 800,000 eligible voters will elect a president and a 72-member national assembly on 30 November and 1 December. The CoD is one of nine parties which has registered to contest the polls. Besides the DRC intervention, other key issues facing the nation of 1.6 million people are secessionist tensions in the northeast Caprivi Strip, high unemployment, and concerns over the growing spread of HIV/AIDS. As teams of election observers from the European Union and the United Nations this week fanned out into the countryside, political observers in the capital, Windhoek, where few campaign posters are in evidence, described the atmosphere as generally calm ahead of the voting.