CoD's list of 72 not ready yet

MARIENTAL – The Congress of Democrats’ (CoD) list of 72 candidates for the National Assembly (NA) has not been finalized yet.

CoD president Ben Ulenga told Nampa the party’s executive committee still needs to approve the candidates who were nominated by the party’s regional structures to go onto the list.

He, however, promised that the list will be made public in due course.

The announcement of the 72- member list was supposed to coincide with the party’s manifesto launch on Saturday.

However, only the launch took place under a tent in the Empelheim residential area.

Meanwhile, speaking during the event, a member of the Women Democrats, Nelago Kondombola, stressed that it is critical that women of all ages exercise their right to vote in the forthcoming Presidential and National Assembly elections on 27 and 28 November.

According to her, women's issues will not effectively be addressed by the legislature if women do not vote their fellow women into power.

She stated that women should make their voices heard on issues affecting the public at large.

In its manifesto, the CoD expressed commitment to work with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and community-based organisations to remove all legal impediments and raise barriers that prevent the equal participation of women in decision-making.

“Women constitute the majority of our population. Despite some progress made since independence, society still does not fully value the contribution of our women. In our communities, women are victims of violence, rape and passion murders. Government has done little over the past 20 years to mainstream women’s causes into the country’s development agenda,” the manifesto indicated.