As this year’s general elections draw closer, evidence is growing that the ruling party Swapo will win with ease again – probably retaining its two-thirds majority.
This will not entirely be due to the successes that the party has achieved in the past four years, but because those who are supposed to challenge it at the ballot box are busy destroying what is left of their already weak muscles.
Yesterday a new political party, the National Youth Party, arrived on the scene, albeit with little pomp and fanfare. The party enters an already crowded fraternity of opposition politics – and does not seem to be different from its peers in either appeal or ideology.
The only unavoidable prospect that the new party brings to the table is a further divided opposition vote, which will again weaken the existing parties and deliver another easy victory for Swapo on a silver platter.
Meanwhile the DTA soap opera, starring its president and his predecessor, continues unabated – to the amusement of its popcorn-eating viewers.
Given the depth of problems haunting our country, such as the continued empowerment of the haves at the expense of the have-nots, favouritism and elitism, one would have expected the ruling party to face trouble in retaining its dominance.
But the so-called alternative politics, a fictional concept on which many local political formations are trying to ride on, is virtually non-existent.
In the absence of an alternative political home, many voters might opt to rather stay with the devil they know, which is the ruling party.
There is nothing wrong with Swapo retaining power through the democratic will of the people. In fact it’s not our business, but that of the people, to decide which political organisation or leader should lead this country.
But as an active participant in our country’s democratic dispensation, our duty is to monitor the political developments and movements in the country with the aim of making informed conclusions and predictions.
Elsewhere in the world, politics is such that there are two major political formations in the country competing for power.
The competition between them is usually strong and, therefore, issue-driven as opposed to feasting on the ignorance, blind loyalty of the masses or tribal proximity.
While Swapo has feasted on its popularity because of its undoubted liberation credentials, some of its competitors have relied on tribal politics for survival. As long as principles are absent, no changes are anticipated.
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