Namibia’s parties present election lists that are on the short list (so to speak) of the world’s longest closed lists, nominating candidates for the single national district of 72 seats. The South-West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), which has governed the country since independence, has agreed on its list for the upcoming elections.
New Era reports:
The party held its fifth electoral college on Saturday, with 211 members on the voters’ roll – those eligible to vote – and elected from 117 candidates that have been entered as candidates from the ranks of section, branch, district and regional conferences.
Nominations also came from the party’s youth League, women’s and elders’ councils, and the affiliated National Union of Namibian Workers (NUNW).
The story says there was a “behind-the-scenes bloody nosed fight,” but the party (predictably) promises unity.
It is not as if the multiple nominating entities within the party produced a well balanced slate.
On the list, there are 23 women, with Iivula-Ithana and Petrina Haingura the only women among the first 10 candidates.
A notable female omission is long-serving minister and current Deputy Prime Minister Libertina Amathila, who earlier indicated that she would not avail herself for re-election.
None of the candidates nominated by the women’s or elders’ councils appear among the list of 72, and two of those nominated by the Youth League – Piet van der Walt and Paulus Kapia, have made it.
Most of the National Assembly candidates are Swapo Party Members of Parliament and members of the party’s central committee.
You have to be pretty far down the list not to be elected. SWAPO won just under 75% of the votes at the last election, in 2004. And not much is likely to change this time. The election is in November.
Namibia is a very big country geographically with a small population. Why isn’t the country broken up into smaller multimember districts with a nation wide tier to ensure proportionality nationwide.
Does the dominant party (SWAPO) do this to insure that it can control the candidates that it puts on to a close party list system?
A close party list system when a party wins such a massive majority is more scarier than FPTP when a party wins a massive majority because at least voters are electing individuals who can at least defect and keep their seats unless party switching is banned.
Why hasn’t the opposition gotten it’s act together and win more seats?
Seed planted by Suaprazzodi — 09 September 2009 @ 00:12
211 preselectors choosing (and then ranking) 72 candidates from 117 prospective nominees seems a very high ratio of choosers to chosen.
I recall reading an old news report of a Victorian Labor Party preselection in the 1960s when (from memory) 85 preselectors chose a candidate from 81 prospective hopefuls. They used AV, which could mean that (with ties being likely when the average number of votes per candidate is only 1.049) ties would be extremely likely, and the order of elimination would be nearly random.
Seed planted by Tom Round — 09 September 2009 @ 00:57
I think, as would be the case in Iraq about 15 years later, the UN administrators opted for single national district and closed lists because it was easy. Large displaced population, no current census, and either not a lot of time or security for a campaign by individuals.
Of course, much the same could be said for Afghanistan, and they went with SNTV, so who knows…
There can be little doubt in my mind, however, that a centralized organization like SWAPO would prefer closed lists as a means to keep dissent in check. The party is an umbrella that incorporates numerous ethnic and other interests (sort of like the ANC in South Africa), which of course is also the answer to the question of why the opposition is not stronger: one party comes pretty close to “catching all.”
Seed planted by MSS — 09 September 2009 @ 13:41
I think STV or even open party list PR would have been better, at least a voter would have a choice between candidates with in a party.
Seed planted by Suaprazzodi — 10 September 2009 @ 01:36
I know it’s an old post but I just discovered this. Very sad and very worrying, that despite the democratic veneer and a clean slate of eletoral health these sort of attitudes exist. Straight from the SWAPO party website – check the whole thing it’s a chilling read. I do wonder if in some of the less established SADC democracies they’re willing to go along with pluralism whilst they’re guaranteed to win. It’d be interesting to see whatever happened if the results or polls got real tight in Botswana, Namibia or Lesotho. http://www.swapoparty.org/vote_swapo_party_vote_pohamba_for_president.html
Seed planted by Matt — 04 November 2009 @ 00:26
No surprise:
The above is excerpted from IPS.
Seed planted by MSS — 08 December 2009 @ 18:06