Ulenga resigns as CoD president

CONGRESS of Democrats founding president Ben Ulenga says he has a lot to say about his resignation from the party but will not do so now.

Speaking to yesterday, Ulenga said he tendered his resignation in January but there were still some issues to be sorted out.

His resignation came into effect on Saturday when the party held a consultative meeting in Windhoek attended by members of the national executive committee (NEC) as well as other invited party members.

“I am no longer in that field. I cannot say much. I will leave it to the party as they have people who speak for them. I am no longer relevant,” he said.

Ulenga, who resigned from Swapo to form the CoD in 1999, said his latest resignation was out of his free will.

CoD vice president Vaino Amuthenu will act as the party leader in the meantime.

University of Namibia law professor Nico Horn said yesterday he had a lot of respect for Ulenga especially when he was Namibia’s high commissioner in the UK.

Horn said there was a lot of vibrancy when Ulenga launched his party, but like all other opposition parties, they could not beat Swapo.

“Swapo is not just a party, it is like a national movement and the CoD never managed to get the votes they expected,” Horn said adding that infighting worsened things for the CoD.

In the 1999 national elections, the CoD won seven seats in the National Assembly. In 2004, the party won five seats and in 2009, the CoD won one seat. Last year, it failed to retain the single seat.

“No small party can survive that,” Horn said.

Horn further said the CoD had good policies and were strong on the idea of reconciliation such that the party had people from all backgrounds in leadership positions, something Ulenga had to be commended for.

He said while Ulenga was a leader with a mission, members started fighting in the background and killed the party.

“The few people who remained were Ulenga loyalists. All other members changed loyalty already to other opposition parties,” Horn said.

He also said Namibians stay with one leader for too long until they kill the party.

“We are too slow to change leadership. I think this is the end of CoD. He stayed for too long and I cannot see it surviving. The new leader will have to build a party from scratch. The foundation is gone,” Horn asserted.

The meeting the party held on Saturday was to review its performance in the 2014 presidential and parliamentary elections as well as to prepare for the upcoming regional and local authority elections.

The meeting further critically considered the precarious financial situation of the party and resolved to launch an aggressive fund-raising drive for a successful election campaign this year.