Nudo won’t join NBC boycott

THE National Unity Democratic Organisation (Nudo) has rejected a call by other opposition parties to pull out of the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation’s Election Forum.

The Congress of Democrats (CoD), DTA of Namibia, Namibia Movement for Democratic Change and the South West Africa National Union (Swanu) yesterday withdrew from the forum, citing the State broadcaster’s bias in allocating radio airtime. “It doesn’t make sense to boycott the forum at this stage, because that would be giving a blank cheque to Swapo to continue doing as they wish,” declared Nudo presidential advisor, Joseph Kauandenge.Kauandenge concurred that the NBC’s bias in favour of the ruling party raised question marks about the fairness of Namibia’s electoral process, but said boycotting it would not address the situation.Arnold Tjihuiko, who is number two on Nudo’s parliamentary candidates’ list, also poured scorn the NBC, charging that despite being bankrolled with taxpayers’ money the corporation has turned itself to a “Swapo wing.””The NBC is totally out of order in the way it conducts itself during election campaigns …we’ll make sure when we get to parliament that we won’t vote for any money allocated to them, they must get money from Swapo,” Tjihuiko said.Meanwhile, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has also joined in the fray over the NBC’s alleged unequal treatment of political parties taking part in the elections.Last week the NBC conceded that it had lied when it publicly announced several times that it was guided by the Namibian Communication Commissions Act in the allocation of airtime to political parties.”It doesn’t make sense to boycott the forum at this stage, because that would be giving a blank cheque to Swapo to continue doing as they wish,” declared Nudo presidential advisor, Joseph Kauandenge.Kauandenge concurred that the NBC’s bias in favour of the ruling party raised question marks about the fairness of Namibia’s electoral process, but said boycotting it would not address the situation.Arnold Tjihuiko, who is number two on Nudo’s parliamentary candidates’ list, also poured scorn the NBC, charging that despite being bankrolled with taxpayers’ money the corporation has turned itself to a “Swapo wing.””The NBC is totally out of order in the way it conducts itself during election campaigns …we’ll make sure when we get to parliament that we won’t vote for any money allocated to them, they must get money from Swapo,” Tjihuiko said.Meanwhile, the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) has also joined in the fray over the NBC’s alleged unequal treatment of political parties taking part in the elections.Last week the NBC conceded that it had lied when it publicly announced several times that it was guided by the Namibian Communication Commissions Act in the allocation of airtime to political parties.