Nujoma says he won't stand for fourth term

Namibia's president Sam Nujoma has again said he won't be standing in the 2004 elections for a fourth term, The Namibian newspaper reported on Friday. Speaking at his farm earlier this week, Nujoma said he would stick to the constitutional limits of only two five-year terms, and was only serving his current third term due to a "unanimous" request from the Namibian population. In the last election in November 1999, Nujoma won 77 percent of the vote. A number of traditional authorities in the north of the country are lobbying for Nujoma to return for a fourth term, saying he needs to complete certain projects. The ruling SWAPO party amended the country's constitution in 1999 to allow him a third term, which ends next year, arguing that his tenure between 1990 and 1995 did not fall under the constitutional limit of two five-year terms because he was not elected directly at independence in 1990. The constitutional amendment enabled Nujoma, who turned 74 last week, to stand for the third term as Namibia's founding president, but states that all future presidents will only serve two terms. Ben Ulenga, president of the opposition Congress of Democrats (COD) told IRIN: "We are happy and relieved that President Nujoma has now realised the need to respect the Namibian constitution and the wishes of the Namibian people, as enshrined in the constitution. We disagree that he was unanimously requested [to stand for the third term], as the Congress of Democrats [which won 10 percent of the vote in 1999] is partly proof to the contrary. "We hope that he will stand by his word because it is well known that other leaders have gone back on their word, but we will watch and we will insist," Ulenga said. "There is a time to come and a time to go, and Nujoma has played his part." The Namibian Economist newspaper quoted an analyst as saying that possible successors could be foreign affairs minister, Hidipo Hamutenya, Minister of Lands Hifikepunye Pohamba, who is also SWAPO's secretary-general, and Education Minister Nahas Angula.