OSHAKATI: Some prominent Swapo-Party politicians in the Oshana Region want the party’s secretariat to nullify the results of the elective regional conference held in the region last month.

The politicians, who preferred to remain anonymous, told NAMPA on Wednesday that the conference was illegitimately constituted as it was held before the district conference for the Oshakati East could be held.

“Although nine of the 10 districts in the region held conferences before the regional conference, that of the Oshakati District is still pending and the head office of the party was never informed about this,” the disgruntled Swapo-Party politicians claimed.

They demanded to know why the party’s head office opted to remain silent on the flawed Oshana regional conference while it wasted no time to nullify the conference results in Oshikoto and Omusati regions because of the alleged irregularities and violation of the party’s election rules and procedures.

These politicians believed the regional conference in the Oshana Region was not supposed to take place if one of the districts has not yet finished with its district conference.

Oshakati East is the district where the new regional coordinator of the party in the region, Erastus Kapolo, and the regional mobiliser, Lott Kuushomwa, are from.

Disgruntled Swapo-Party politicians told this news agency that Oshakati East was supposed to conduct its district conference last Sunday, but it was once again postponed to undetermined date.

The postponement of the conference, they said, is because division among the party members has become the order of the day in the district.

“The new regional coordinator, himself is the cause of division among party members due to the fact that he prefers weaker candidates to be leaders at the expenses of those shown competency and leadership quality in the district and the region at large,” disgruntled Swapo-Party politicians claimed.

They went on to saying division will remain among the party members in the region if Kapolo’s leadership style of favouritism continues.

Asked to respond to the allegations, Kapolo admitted that the conference to elect the leadership of the party in the Oshakati East District remains pending.

“We do everything as per requirement of the constitution of the party or get authorization from the head office in Windhoek before we take any decision on all party-related matters. It is not my leadership style which matters,” Kapolo replied.

According to him, his intention to contest for the position of the regional coordinator threw all the arrangements for the district conference of the Oshakati East into disarray and the party’s head office was informed of this dimension and agreed for the district conference to be held after the regional one.

Kapolo indicated that a room was created for him also to able to stand for re-election as Oshakati East district coordinator should he fails to be elected as the coordinator at the regional level.

However, disgruntled members of the party argued that Kapolo cheated by withholding his own district conference and irregularly create for him alone the freedom to come back to the district election in case he failed to make it at the regional level.

“That is pure corruption, because all delegates to the regional conference and those contested the election at the regional level were from the districts. They also wished to have that freedom to be voted at their respective districts after failing to be voted at the regional level,” disgruntled members noted.

Kapolo also confirmed that the conference of that district could not take place last Sunday because no one of the candidates nominated for the position of district coordinator has pitched up.

“Therefore, the regional executive committee has resolved the nominees for the mobiliser position to be contacted and asked to explain why they could not show up for the election last Sunday,” Kapolo explained.

He added that the Oshakati East district conference that was planned for last Sunday could not go ahead, as participants disagreed with the election of the district coordinator and treasurer in the absence of the candidates for mobilizer position.

The date for the district conference of the Oshakati East is yet to be determined.