Windhoek — The All People's Party (APP) has pulled out of the proposed alliance between several opposition parties, after refusing to give up contesting in any of the constituencies in the Kavango Region, leaving the ambitious opposition project in complete tatters.

The APP allegedly refused the idea of not fielding its candidates in some of the constituencies in the Kavango Region, in what is presumed to be its traditional stronghold.

A deadlock in coalition talks emerged when the DTA indicated that it wished to contest the Mukwe Constituency, where it fared better than APP in the last general elections.

But the APP leadership, led by party president Ignatius Shixwameni, rejected the idea and insisted it would contest all nine constituencies in the region.

The APP's stance was regarded as a form of tribalism since the party's senior leadership hails from that region. Following the meetings, the party has since resolved to quit the coalition.

The Congress of Democrats (CoD) is further said to be unhappy at being 'robbed' a chance of contesting in what it considers 'winnable' constituencies, as it was only allocated a paltry number of constituencies across the country.

The former official opposition party was not given a constituency to contest in the Kavango, Kunene, Karas, Erongo and Omusati regions, according to a draft report seen by New Era, a situation that has angered the top echelons in the CoD.

It was resolved during the talks that the CoD would only contest Linyanti in the Caprivi Region, Mariental Urban (Hardap), Windhoek East (Khomas), Oshikango, Ongenga, Ohangwena and Engela (Ohangwena), Okatana and Ongwediva (Oshana), Guinas (Oshikoto) and Otavi (Otjozondjupa), while it would contest alongside Nudo and DTA in Otjombinde (Omaheke).

CoD President, Ben Ulenga, is said to be unhappy with the allocation of constituencies to his party and talk is that the party is not likely to sign the memorandum of understanding (MoU) that would all but confirm constituencies which every party in the alliance would contest.

"CoD is not happy with the allocation and the party is not keen to sign the agreement because that would mean giving away winnable constituencies," an opposition source said.

Four of seven constituencies in the Erongo Region have been allocated to the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the party got a further four in the six-constituency Kunene Region, while DTA got four of the six constituencies in the Hardap Region.

The APP was allocated a massive eight of the nine constituencies in Kavango, while Nudo got a lion's share of constituencies in Omaheke, followed by DTA.

Nudo, which initially insisted it would not join the coalition, also got the bigger chunk of constituencies in the Otjozondjupa Region, but no concrete decisions were taken on who takes which constituency in the populous Omusati Region.

The memorandum of understanding was slated for signing about two weeks ago, but with APP's pullout and CoD's reluctance to put pen on the dotted lines, there exists a feeling that the alliance might collapse altogether.

There are further allegations that the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), which was the first opposition party to pull out of coalition talks, is taking advantage of the current situation and is speaking to individual parties.

"The agreement was that no party would be allowed to speak to any party outside the coalition, but since the MoU is not signed yet, there's nothing binding that would prevent anyone from speaking to anyone," a source said.