Angula to reciprocate courtesy by backing UPM

After her bid to stand as an independent presidential candidate crumbled like a sand castle yesterday, Ally Angula said she will now focus on campaigning for the United People’s Movement (UPM) ahead of the watershed November elections. She made the remarks yesterday when asked what her next step will be after her application was rejected by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) - which resulted from allegedly submitting forms with fake voter registration numbers.Angula was not the only independent candidate whose application was rejected, as the same happened to Jeremiah Kaambo and Elsie Chen.Because the UPM stood behind her during her campaign drive to collect the required 7 000 signatures across the country until yesterday morning before the ECN ruled her out of the contest for the highest office in the country, Angula said she will pledge her allegiance to the party.“I am aligning towards the people who stood behind me and that’s UPM. As soon as the campaign opened, UPM was with me,” she said.“Even when I had challenges in the regions, I would call them and say that there is, for example, a problem in Omusati and they would send young people from Rehoboth who travelled that long distance by bus to rescue the situation. Hence I will stand with them and campaign so they can get as many seats as possible in the National Assembly."SabotageUPM’s support of Angula’s independent presidential bid came at a hefty price - it resulted in leader Jan van Wyk and Frans Bertolini being kicked out of the National Assembly by the party’s alliance partner, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM).When contacted for comment yesterday, Van Wyk told Namibian Sun that they have no regrets about pledging allegiance to Angula, even though it cost them their seats in parliament.“We don’t regret what we did. We know why this happened. We said we are going to support a God-fearing woman and because of that, we were removed from parliament,” he said.“There was a plan to stop Ally Angula from running for president and the system was created in such a way. There was sabotage in everything when it came to the collection of signatures.”Expected leniencyBoth Van Wyk and Angula said some of those who volunteered to collect signatures in the regions had ill intentions to sabotage the process by submitting signatures with false information.Angula went on to add that apart from the sabotage from those volunteers, the ECN system of entering data also contributed to their challenges.She said voter cards only sport citizens’ initials, but the electoral body's system required that full names be entered. She expected more leniency from the ECN, she said, and further appealed that more must be done to encourage independent presidential candidates in upcoming elections.kenya@namibiansun.com

Angula to reciprocate courtesy by backing UPM

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-03-17

Please login to leave a comment

Angula to reciprocate courtesy by backing UPM

Comments

Namibian Sun 2025-03-17

Please login to leave a comment

Login