Dr Itula betrays the Namibian opposition
In what has gone down as a political low blow, the charismatic leader of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) has launched sweeping attacks on the Namibian political order, including parties in the opposition like his.
The Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) leader, Dr Panduleni Itula, wants the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to explain within 60 days how two opposition political parties joined forces in recent elections and share a platform in the legislature.
The professional dentist now doubling in politics used his address at the IPC’s High Level National Consultative meeting in Windhoek on the 15th April 2023, to challenge the ECN’s credibility, SWAPO Party’s internal arrangement that stopped members from running for party president and the validity of the Popular Democratic Movement party, in light of a 2019 agreement.
Here is what we know about the IPC leader: he is a dentist, constitutional scholar and a politician by circumstance. The latter description that he apportioned himself on the go may or may not describe him and his brand of politics.
The doctor is a remarkable man who recites from memory the Namibian and ruling SWAPO Party constitutions, a multilingual Namibian whose energy expended in the 2019 Presidential Election earned him the trademark of a “walking politician,” perhaps not a working one.
The move was the clearest intention ever from the IPC leader that his party and he wish to go it alone in the upcoming general elections (November 2024) against the SWAPO Party, which has ruled Namibia for 33 years to date. But the attack he has disguised as wide-ranging to include the Judiciary and the SWAPO party appears designed for the main opposition Popular Democratic Movement (PDM).
What is unusual and a first in Namibian politics is for an opposition party leader to attack opposition parties. Dr Panduleni Itula says the election law of Namibia only allows political parties to work together under a merger or through an alliance. Based on that conclusion, he has questioned the existence of the main opposition Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and a Rehoboth-based United People’s Movement (UPM); the parties that he alleges to have worked as one in the previous elections and share the PDM platform in lawmaking.
He has proven himself a go-getter who sets his own political table. His choreographed entry into the political scene after being on the losing side with Team SWAPO at the 2017 SWAPO Congress was timed to perfection.
The dentist left the medical chair for a brief period and launched his presidential campaign at Orunarongue in Otjinene Constituency of Omaheke Region, months after an opinion in newspapers showed that a person can run for president without belonging to a political party. He was behind the newspaper opinion and burst onto the political scene thereafter as the person, who recites constitutions. In those brief months, he built his political name and campaigned widely, walking unbelievable distances to canvass votes.
Since then, he has become the first independent presidential candidate and has established the IPC, a party that borrows the colours of the Namibian flag and whose identity is still taking shape. With many disgruntled voters, the party has grown rapidly and won control of the Swakopmund town.
His loss in the 2019 Presidential Election earned Namibia its first Supreme Court decision that shaped voting in Namibia. The court banned all electronic voting not backed by paper trail.
“Does PDM exist?” the dentist asked at the IPC meeting in Windhoek. “And we give them 60 days to answer the question, failing which; we will seek a judicial review.” Dr Itula has not been around long enough for Namibians to know if he does utter empty threats. But his bombshell attacks have caught many voters unawares.
Among the people who were quick to make sense of it is renowned scholar Joe Diescho. Diescho considers the PDM-UPM arrangement a tactical coalition that should not concern the IPC leader. Although Dr Itula may be well within his right as a concerned citizen and political player to assume the role of political detective, the immense weight he has placed on exposing and arbitrating the opposition party affair, and his usually deafening silence or slap on the wrist-type complaint he has about the SWAPO Party have left sceptics almost convinced that he is the ruling party’s trump card.
The fragmented Namibian opposition has been showing a strong and united front against the SWAPO Party in the National Assembly in recent months. Talks in opposition political circles have hinted at parties throwing their weight behind one opposition candidate against the SWAPO Party in the next year’s general elections. However, the timing of Dr Itula’s bombshell challenge appears designed to muddy the waters, throw a wrench into those plans.
An initial urging by some voters for the parties to support one candidate against the ruling party’s Netumbo Ndaitwah was received warmly by some leaders. Hope still remained even when the opposition parties, which had the potential to control Windhoek handed it back to the ruling party in January 2023.
Dr Itula’s challenge and interpretation of the electoral law may or may not slow the momentum of the opposition. But it sure has thrown spanners in the works.
Pundits wonder whether the IPC leader has become drunk on integrity or exposed his opportunism and motive of destabilising the opposition in the interest of the SWAPO Party.
The questions now left in the minds of many are: is he trying to force a reshuffle of ECN’s long-serving administrative leader, Theo Mujoro, and the PDM; is he laying groundwork for maintaining the opposition’s fragmentation to sweep Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah into power and help the SWAPO Party maintain its share of the political pie?
The verdict is pending.
