The recent preliminary result from the National Statistics Agency (NSA) reveals that the Swakopmund constituency population stands at close to 76,000, making it the largest constituency in Namibia, nearly three times its size since its inception in 1992.
With the population increase and expansion, the town's leadership strongly proposes that the constituency be split into two, but there is a question mark regarding this.
They claim that doing so will create room for an additional constituency to ensure the smooth provision of government services and service delivery.
Erongo Governor, Neville Andre, handed over the submission to the Commission of the 5th Boundaries Delimitation and Demarcation during the consultation meeting held in Swakopmund.
The regional leadership further proposes that the two constituencies be named Swakopmund North and Swakopmund South.
The boundary demarcation of the two constituencies will start from the shores of the Swakop River behind Alte Bruke Resort, going through Garnison Street.
"To support this fact, the town of Swakopmund has experienced significant growth in the past 10 years, with the addition of numerous new suburbs such as Ocean View, Hage Heights, Mile 4, Jubulani, Rossmund, Nonidas, Extensions 27, 30, 31, and the informal settlements of DRC proper, Wagdaar, and Matutura. These locations include the construction of facilities such as Nampower Station, the expansion of the housing programme in Matutura, and a new compound of the International University of Management (IUM), which is currently under construction in that area."
However, the Swakopmund constituency councillor, Louisa Kativa, says that she is unaware of the information presented by the governor since her office did not conduct any community meetings.
She added that due to the low turnout of community members, the meeting was cancelled by the constituency control officer.
"I think the demarcation of the constituency was very good for me; I saw it was very good for you to come back around, but I think there was a lack of communication between the office of the governor and the office of the councillor who is speaking now. Why do I say that? Because even the letter that indicates which region must be demarcated doesn't have that information in my office, and I cannot comment on anything to date. I am supporting the demarcation of Swakopmund, or I am not supporting it because I don't know who communicated and who was part and parcel of the discussion."
The Chairperson of the Commission, Justice Petrus Unengu, says that Kativa failed to carry out her duty to collect data that was supposed to be presented.
"If she did not act on the letter inviting her to hold meetings in her constituency, that means she did not do her duty; she did not perform what was expected of her to do. We need this information. How did it come to the conclusion that the proposal has been made that your constituency has to be split into two? Where did this information come from, and how did it come about when you said there was no meeting held? That's all we need from you."