Thread: What the votes cast abroad tell

By Phil ya Nangoloh*

NSHR - The near-final poll results about the votes cast at polling stations outside Namibia as well as by seamen from ships at sea do NOT at all tell the real story about the voting behavior in Namibia and or about what the final polling results are likely be after the November 27-28 2009 Presidential and National Assembly election.

However, the votes cast at polling stations outside Namibia as well as those cast by a small number of seamen at Luderitz and Walvis Bay strongly suggest that embassy employees and Namibia’s foreign missions as well as seafarers on ships at sea have still cast their votes for the Opposition political parties.

This is in spite of widespread political intolerance and even physical violence as well as other undue influences (please visit Namibia's National Human Rights Organisation and in the search field enter “undue influences”.) .Other factors such as unfair and unequal media election coverage by the public-funded NBC Radio and TV and New Era newspaper also have a decisive influence on the voting conduct by embassy employees at Namibia’s foreign missions as well as by seafarers on ships at sea.

The ruling Swapo Party is primarily held responsible for the above electoral offenses. The violent language and other hate expressions by the ruling Swapo Party are inherent in and permeate its website for anyone to see. For further information on violence and other acts of political intolerance also visit this website. Hence, to claim that Namibia is a democracy is a myth.

The near-final results from polling stations outside Namibia show that despite the above-mentioned factors, for every four (4) votes cast for the ruling Swapo Party, there is one (1) vote cast for main extra-parliamentary opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) alone. This support is slightly more than 23 percent when the votes cast for all Opposition parties are included. For an in depth analyses, please refer to Analysis One and Analysis Two in PDF format.

Therefore it can safely be concluded that despite the above-mentioned negative factors, the general public at home is expected to make their choices much more freely than embassy employees abroad and seafarers from ships at sea. Like embassy employees, seamen also work and live under controlled conditions set by the captains as well as by the Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources under which they resort.

* This article is written in my personal capacity in terms of Article 21(1) (a) of the Namibian Constitution on November 18 2009. In case of any further enquiry, comments or criticism, please send them to E-mail: nshr@iafrica.com.na or call: +264 811 299 886