AN Afro barometer study revealed that 80% of
Namibians vote out of loyalty and not for service delivery.
This means that the Swapo party wins elections by a
landslide because of empathy and not because people are satisfied with its
service delivery.
The Afro barometer is a comparative series of public
attitude surveys, which measures citizens' attitudes on democracy and its
alternatives, evaluations of the quality of governance and economic
performance.
The current series - Round 6 - is for the period
between August and September 2014 covering up to 35 African countries.
The study was launched in Windhoek yesterday by the
Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR), which coordinated the field work.
It reveals that 70% of Namibians think government
has failed to create enough jobs and lists unemployment, poverty, land and
housing as the biggest problems. The study also attributes this thinking to the
high unemployment rate, which was revised downwards from 51,2% to about 27%.
Furthermore, the study shows that 80% do not agree
with salary increases for office bearers and think that too much emphasis has
been given to party loyalty over service delivery.
The same percentage also thinks the government has
failed to arrest the persistent inequality gap, which is among the worst in the
world.
The key findings of the study include strong public
support for the government's policies on education, health and managing the
economy.
It also shows that there is weak public support by
the government on poverty reduction, income equality and job creation.
The study also found that people are satisfied with
the basic health services offered by government as well as education. Sixty
five percent believe government is handling corruption very badly if at all.
Namibians think the economy has been well managed
but agree at the same time that government should introduce a basic income
grant, even if it means increasing taxes.
Also key to the study is the conclusion that there
should be reform on how government handles tenders to avoid nepotism and
favouritism.
It concludes by saying that Namibians relate
democracy to personal freedoms (speech, movement, organisation membership and
access to information).
The Namibian
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