Several political actors have proposed a fourth constitutional amendment to address Article 47 (c), which effectively prevents government employees from vying for political office in the National Assembly (NA).

At present, all politicians employed in the public service, national, regional and local councils are forced to resign from their jobs upon being nominated for the National Assembly.

Those employed in the private sector are not affected by this constitutional provision.

These sentiments were aired at the launch of the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s five-year strategic plan here on Friday.

“It is very clear that Article 46 [and] 47 are a bit compromising and violates the rights of civil servants…[it] has to change so that every Namibian has equal access to the electoral process of this country,” Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) secretary-general, Manuel Ngaringombe said.

On her part, Civil Society Information Centre Namibia coordinator, Carola Engelbrecht questioned why the specific clause was only implemented in 2019.

“It has been there from the start in 1990 but was never implemented. I have no idea why suddenly in 2019, this jumped out and ECN decided to implement it,” she said.

She was, however, conservative about amending the Constitution.

“One should not be so frivolous with amending the Constitution because when you start amending, later on, nothing is left of what was there and to amend, you need a two-thirds majority in both houses,” Engelbrecht cautioned.

Their sentiments were echoed by human rights activist Pauline Dempers.

“It [Article 47 (c)] affects people differently and should be reconsidered because if I resign today and I am not successful in the election, it means I will be jobless. So it has implications,” Dempers said.

Other changes the stakeholders mooted include stricter regulations around the funding of political parties to ensure a level playing field.

In the not-so-distant past, ECN voiced its concern about the lack of financial accountability observed at most political parties as not all political formations are compliant with Sections 139, 140, 121 and 158 pertaining to political party funding as prescribed in the Electoral Act.

It comes at a time when the ruling Swapo Party has been accused in court papers of having benefited from the Fishrot scandal through fishing quotas under the pretext of ‘governmental objectives’.

PDM is allegedly using funding from the National Assembly to settle the personal loans of some of its members.

More so, it was also proposed that all registered political parties should be funded by the State.

So far, only political parties represented in the National Assembly and National Council qualify for funding based on the number of seats they have.

“When you want to have a balanced playing field, it is good to fund all registered political parties,” Ngaringombe continued.

But the politician has some reservations, as such a move could lead to an upsurge in fly-by-night political parties.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency