20091211

YOUTH organisations of several political parties that contested the 2009 Presidential and National Assembly elections plan to stage protest marches countrywide, as a sign of their rejection of the results of the elections.

Members of these political youth leagues intend to petition the courts in this regard and to demand nullification of the 2009 election results. These youth groups have made it clear that they do not want a recount of the ballots. All they want is total nullification and a fresh start of the elections.

They are accusing the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and the ruling party, Swapo, of everything under the sun from mismanaging the electoral process to vote rigging. The parties are, however, yet to provide substantive evidence of their claims. And, we can only hope that they will do so during their court bid to overturn the election results.

What baffles us though is not their stance but the timing of their planned protest marches. Granted these youth leagues, like anybody else, have the right to make their demands and to protest if they so wish.

However, the timing of their protest marches vis-à-vis their court action is mind-boggling. These parties have a pending case before court but are again piling pressure on the courts through petitions and protests perhaps to try and influence the outcome of the case. Petitioning the courts while proceedings of the court case they instituted are ongoing is a sign of bad faith and makes little sense. One would understand the move if the matter was not before court.

Their motive for instituting legal action while at the same time engaging in street protests and petitioning the courts therefore raises serious questions about their game plan, which is two pronged - argue the case in court while applying political pressure on the courts and whip up public emotions countrywide with the calculated effect of mass opposition to the status quo - a.k.a. - the Nyamu doctrine.

We repeat, the move casts doubt on the real intention and genuineness of opposition demands. Unless otherwise explained, these parties may be playing for time while trying to shift goal posts from electoral contestation to the attainment of power at whatever cost and through other means.

The tone of some members of the youth groups at their press conference last week gives us the more reason to doubt their real intention and motive.

One of the youth leaders at the press conference said "they can take us and throw us in jail, but we want to start afresh".

Yet another member added "die mense speel met vuur", which stands for "these people are playing with fire".

It is this inflammatory language about "jails" and "fire" that has us worried and we ask - could this be an open invitation for trouble.

Well, we hope there are no plans for mischief behind the façade of marches. We pray that this is not an excuse to try and create political anarchy and chaos.

Namibia is a democracy where the rule of law reigns supreme. No citizen has ever been arrested because of his/her political beliefs. Every political group in this country is free to profess and practise its political beliefs as long as it is within the law and we pray that these marches will be staged within the law.

allafrica