ONE of the ways around the current political impasse, in particular the refusal of Swapo to rebuke its supporters for recent undemocratic occurrences, is for all parties to re-commit to the SADC Principles and Guidelines Governing Democratic Elections.

I was reminded of these guidelines by an elections watch bulletin compiled and released by the IPPR this week.

And Namibians need to internalise these points sooner rather than later, to ensure that the run-up to our 2009 presidential and national elections are free of violence and intimidation and other arbitrary acts which put at risk our fragile peace.

I am going to reproduce the 10 principles in this column today, because we need to be reminded of them.

More than this, we need to ensure that all political parties, and individuals, abide by them.

In the event of 'excuses' by whichever party that may be accused of intimidation and/or the now-popular pretext of 'provocation', it is more necessary than ever that the Police be scrupulously impartial in that its assessment of a given situation be accepted by all parties to a conflict.

This hardly seems the case at present.

Notwithstanding, the SADC guidelines, accepted at a summit in Mauritius in August 2004, should be binding on all member states and political parties contesting elections within them.

It will be apparent to all after reading the 10 points, that these have not been adhered to date.

They are as follows: 1.

Full participation of the citizens in the political process 2.

Freedom of association 3.

Political tolerance 4.

Regular intervals for elections as provided for by the respective national constitutions 5.

Equal opportunity for all political parties to access the state media 6.

Equal opportunity to exercise the right to vote and be voted for 7.

Independence of the judiciary and impartiality of the electoral institutions 8.

Voter education 9.

Acceptance and respect of the election results by political parties proclaimed to have been free and fair by the competent national electoral authorities in accordance with the law of the land 10.

Challenge of the election results as provided for in the law of the land Within the Namibian context, points 1, 2, 3, 5 and 6 are those which require the most emphasis, given that these are areas in which we fall short at present, and this situation has to be rectified in the run-up to the elections in the year ahead for our nation's sake.

Namibia was party to the adoption of these guidelines, and therefore, like all SADC states, has to commit to them and be seen to be enforcing the said principles.

This is not the case at present, and it can clearly be said that our political principals, from the President to other senior Ministers (with some exceptions) have, possibly for reasons for political expediency, brushed these aside in recent weeks.

This is, and remains, unacceptable.

There are problems faced by our country, some of which lie outside our control.

This is an area where we ourselves can decide in we want to keep the peace and only if we have the political will to do so.

The fault for a slide into anarchy would lie squarely on our own shoulders, and more specifically our head of state.

The time has come where people or parties must take responsibility for their own actions and not indulge in a 'blame game' vis-à-vis the media and other institutions which want to guard against, rather than promote, political mayhem.

Our own Constitution is clear enough on the SADC principles, which simply echo that document in a more succinct and abbreviated form.

We have to re-commit to these principles, and we must also expose those who would contribute to our national undoing.