Outside the city, the RDP carries on as normal

While its party headquarters is beset by a crisis that threatens to destroy the official opposition party from within, Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) regional conferences in the North are going ahead unabated.

The party held its elective conference for the Oshana Region at Oshakati on Saturday, where delegates re-elected Valde Namunya as regional secretary.

Namunya obtained 44 votes, defeating Nelson Katenda and Gideon Moses who obtained 29 and 11 votes respectively.

However, Katenda succeeded in his second attempt, winning the race for the position of Deputy Regional Secretary with 36 votes, defeating his closest opponent Just Itoolwa with a meagre surplus of two votes.

The third contestant, Gideon Moses, obtained 11 votes – the exact same number of votes he got in the contest for the Regional Secretary position.

The opposition party also held its elective conference for the Oshikoto Region at Omuthiya on Sunday where the incumbent Regional Secretary Ismael Shailemo was re-elected after obtaining 29 votes, defeating Petrus Mwaami who got 13 votes and Erastus Nghihalwa (11 votes).

The position of Deputy Regional Secretary went to Selma Kandjibi (30 votes) after defeating Petrus Mwaami (17 votes) and Zoro Shivute (7 votes).

Both conferences also elected 35-member regional committees.

Rudolf Kamburona and Caner Kalimba represented the national leadership at both conferences.
Both Timo Shikongo, who chaired the election committee at Omuthiya, and Eino Heelu, who performed similar functions at Oshakati, described the gatherings as a resounding success and as example of a functioning internal democracy.

Heelu explained the RDP’s method of nominating candidates by secret ballot saying that nomination by hand is too intimidating.

“We believe in democracy and practice it. What the RDP is doing is a lesson to other parties,” he said.