It is self-evident that some of the opposition parties are preparing to fight next month's elections through other means. Their weapon of choice is propaganda and dirty tricks while their strategy is to discredit the electoral process through and through.

The ultimate goal of their strategy is to undermine the legitimacy of the outcome of the elections in November and thereby render the results unacceptable.

There are various pointers towards a concerted political onslaught that is being waged against the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and its conduct of the electoral process thus far.

Evidence is available to show that one or more of these parties have perfected a strategy to challenge the results of the November elections when all is done. The Aminuis envelope debacle and the way the saga has played itself out is no isolated incident.

Clearly, there is no doubt in the minds of these parties about the winner of the elections in November. The parties also know too well that they cannot, by any stretch of imagination, hope to pluck victory out of the jaws of the winning party.

Their game plan therefore is to sow doubt, suspicion and mistrust in the minds of Namibians and the world about the conduct and outcome of the electoral process. Instead of appealing for votes, these parties are appealing to the emotions of the people. They are presenting themselves as victims of the ruling party in order to gain sympathy from the voters.

The current impasse on the award of the tender for the printing of ballot papers to Namprint, a Swapo Party-owned outfit, must be seen in a wider context because it is part of this calculated strategy that seeks to portray the ruling party as a cheat and the opposition parties as victims.

It defies logic that election after election, Namprint won the tender for the printing of ballot papers and did so without fail. Similarly, opposition parties willingly participated in those elections without fail and no evidence whatsoever was ever produced that implicated the printing company in any wrongdoing. These elections were always found to be above board and the results were accepted by all including the opposition parties. What could have changed by now?

What has changed is the strategy. The parties or at least some of them are not fighting to win because win they will not. They are fighting to delegitimise the election outcome, perhaps, a strategy that has been borrowed from the script of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in Zimbabwe.

Does it, for example, surprise anybody therefore that the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) sometime this year released a figure that it purported to be its total membership - something to the effect of 200000 members. Is it coincidental that this was done on the eve of the polls?

The move fits well with the party's vehement opposition to the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR) poll prediction of a 75 percent win for the ruling party and only 8 percent for the RDP.

Rebuffing the prediction, a party spokesperson said his party was confident that its performance would be in line with the party's "database". This presumably refers to the reported 200000 membership and is an early sign of contesting the election outcome even before voting takes place. One wonders whether the so-called "database" is verifiable and therefore reliable.

The IPPR poll prediction seem to have scared the hell out of other quarters including Phil ya Nangolo of the National Society for Human rights (NSHR) who now wants the ECN to ban the publication of any public opinion polls or predictions until shortly after voting.

The poll prediction has certainly rubbed the two the wrong way hence their varied reactions. When it suits them, the two are so intolerant of the views and opinions of professional researchers that they want them silenced. For the record however, the number of votes cast with the ECN and not party 'databases' will determine the winner of the elections in November. No party membership, however inflated, will decide the winner for the November elections and no amount of propaganda will change this.

It is unacceptable that parties will issue threats of boycotting the polls and then call on the ECN to convene talks on the same subject. This is like holding the ECN at gunpoint - asking it to negotiate while holding a gun against its head and that is preposterous.

The ECN must therefore soldier on, remain firm and do what is right.