SRA targets young Swakop voters

The Swakopmund Residents Association (SRA) has placed voter education and youth mobilisation on its agenda after warning that low participation in local authority elections weakens residents’ influence over municipal decisions.

SRA chairperson Ciske Howard raised the issue at the association’s annual general meeting last week, where she reflected on the November 2025 election, the SRA’s position in council, and the association’s priorities for the current council term.

Howard said only 29% of eligible voters took part in the 2025 local authority election in Swakopmund, with 12 644 voters casting their ballots.

The SRA received 2 175 votes and retained two seats on the Swakopmund municipal council. Howard said the result was an improvement on the previous election cycle, but concerns remained.

“This means that the younger generation is not going out to vote,” Howard said.

“We have compiled a full election report for ourselves to understand where the pitfalls lie,” she added.

Educate young voters

She underscored the vital role of civic education efforts among school groups.

“That’s something we want to get back to – to teach children that come of age, come of voting age, why it’s important to go and register and why it’s important to stand in the queue and make your mark,” she said.

She said low turnout may partly have been linked to voter fatigue after the national elections the year before, when long queues and severe delays discouraged some voters from returning to polling stations for the local authority election.

Howard said this did not remove the responsibility from residents to participate in local government.

“You can’t leave other people to make the decisions for you. And then you complain about things that are happening in your town if you didn’t go out and vote,” she said.

She said Swakopmund residents had to become more active in civic affairs if they wanted to protect the character of the town.

“Be involved. Become active in your community. And make a difference,” she said.

Active influence

Howard said the SRA had hoped to secure three seats in the 2025 election, but that retaining two seats still placed the association in a position to work with coalition partners and serve on the management committee.

She said this had given the SRA influence inside council, particularly through the division of focus areas among councillors. These include finance, infrastructure, housing, community safety, economic development and land delivery.

Howard said the coalition arrangement was working because councillors were focusing on projects rather than personalities.

“We focus on what we want to achieve and not emotions,” she said.