ALAN congress delay ‘not over Amupanda factor’

TUYEIMO HAIDULA OSHAKATIThe Association of Local Authorities in Namibia (ALAN) says its elective congress -originally scheduled for last week - was postponed due to Covid-19, not over fear that Windhoek mayor Job Amupanda may be elected to take over as president.Talk is rife that after the opposition’s impressive performance in last year’s local authority elections, there are plans to catapult Amupanda into the ALAN hot seat – something ruling party Swapo is opposed to.The presidency position became vacant when Katrina Shimbulu’s term came to an end in May this year. She was elected during the last congress, held in 2016 at Oshakati.Amupanda, the Affirmative Repositioning leader, is thought to harbour the ALAN presidency as a means to consolidate his political ambitions ahead of the 2024 general elections.But sources allege that the delay is deliberate, with the hope that Amupanda’s chance of taking over as president would be slimmer if he is not re-elected as Windhoek mayor during this year’s intra-council mid-term elections, usually held in November of each year.“Windhoek asked them [ALAN] to organise a virtual congress, but I think Swapo fears that [Amupanda] will be nominated for ALAN president,” a source close to the matter told Namibian Sun this week.Several opposition mayors are said to have indicated they will nominate Amupanda for the position.ALAN chief administrative officer Maureen Kambala confirmed the postponement of the congress, but hastened to rubbish claims that Swapo has anything to do with this.He doesn’t qualifyKambala said Amupanda would in any case not qualify for the ALAN presidency because for one to be nominated as president or vice, they should have at least served as a board member of the association.“If we didn’t have councillors who served as board members, then the nominations would have come from the floor, but for now we have people who qualify for the nominations,” she said.Amupanda was reluctant to comment on the issue yesterday, except saying: “ALAN has a constitutional problem that needs to be fixed”.The congress was scheduled for 6 to 8 July but it has now been postponed until further notice. According to Kambala, this is due to the Covid-19 regulations limiting public gatherings to 10 persons.Delegates to the congress are drawn from the country’s 57 local authorities through the Namibian Association of Local Authority Officials (NALAO), as well as ALAN officials.Kambala said in terms of the articles of association, the congress has two sessions, namely the open/public session and the closed session, which mainly approves the audited financial statements, budget and the strategic plan, and most importantly the election of the president and vice-president.The closed session also endorses the regional representatives who serve as the board of directors for the five-year term of office.She said the provision under the election of the president and vice-president clearly stipulates that it should be by congress; this requires 73 delegates from local authorities. Considering virtual congress“Due to the Covid-19 situation in Namibia and regulations, ALAN has communicated to all local authorities to identify and delegate a member with voting rights for submission to the ALAN secretariat. Further to this, we have also requested in the same letter the regions to meet and elect their regional representatives, including the nomination of candidates for president and vice-president subject to the qualification criteria,” Kambala explained.She added that once they have received the details of the voting members, regional representatives and nominations of president and vice-president, the date of and the manner to hold the five-yearly congress will then be conveyed.Kambala explained that they have considered holding a virtual congress, but said this was going to be tricky as some local authorities will experience technical difficulties.“ALAN has been investigating the alternative options of holding the congress of which the only viable option could be virtual; however, we need to investigate the realities of local authorities’ ability to request technologies to effectively connect to such platforms once decided. ALAN will - as a representative of local authorities - in due course announce practical options for holding the congress,” she said.tuyeimo@namibiansun.com

ALAN congress delay ‘not over Amupanda factor’

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-10

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ALAN congress delay ‘not over Amupanda factor’

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-10

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