Brigitte Weidlich
19 November 2008
THE recently re-elected president of the main opposition party Congress of Democrats (CoD), Ben Ulenga, will resign as Member of Parliament in order to prepare the party for next year's national elections.
"We had a national executive committee (NEC) meeting on Sunday and we adopted a programme of work to make CoD battle ready for the elections next year," said Tsudao Gurirab, Secretary General of the party.
"The NEC resolved that the party president will steer this work programme on a fulltime basis and to relieve him of his responsibilities at Parliament."
According to Gurirab, the party will inform the Speaker of the National Assembly, Theo-Ben Gurirab, in writing about this decision.
Gurirab declined to comment on whether Ulenga would remain in his parliamentary seat for the last four sitting days of this year or would resign from the start of 2009.
Parliament goes into recess next week.
CoD has established a disciplinary committee to be led by vice president Alfred Chilinda in order to "allow an opportunity for members to have grievances to be heard and solutions to be found," according to Gurirab.
"Some CoD members express their dismay at Sunday's NEC meeting at the conduct of several members, whose actions not only affect the orderly functioning of the party, but appear to be calculated to tarnish the image of CoD and its leaders," according to the Secretary General.
Elma Dienda, Nora Schimming-Chase who was vice president, Windhoek town councillor Herbert Schultz, the late Kala Gertze, Moses Katjiuongua and Ignatius Shixwameni were the most prominent of the approximately 140 delegates who walked out.
The seven prominent ones were kicked out of the party by Ulenga, but took the matter to court and won the case in July this year.
High Court Judge Louis Muller ruled that they should be reinstated as party members and that the party should hold another congress to elect a new leadership, which was done.
Schimming-Chase contested the race for party president but lost against Ulenga on November 8.
Dienda won the position of treasurer general by three votes.
She and Schultz are the only two members of the 'rebel' faction who are now serving on the new NEC, which was also elected on November 8.
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