The Landless People's Movement (LPM) is a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Namibia Namibia, officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country on the west coast of Southern Africa. Its borders include the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Angola and Zambia to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south; in the no ...

. It is led by former deputy Minister of lands and resettlement Bernadus Swartbooi, who serves as its President and chief change campaigner, and Henny Seibeb, the party's deputy leader. The party has four seats in

parliament In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

, which are occupied by the Party's President, Bernadus Swartbooi, Mootu Utaara, Isaacks Edison and Seibeb Henry.

History

The Landless People's Movement was formed after Bernadus Swartbooi, deputy minister of land reform, was fired by the late former President

Hage Geingob Hage Gottfried Geingob (3 August 1941 – 4 February 2024) was a Namibian politician who served as the third president of Namibia from 2015 until his death in February 2024. Geingob was the country's first prime minister A prime minister ...

in December 2016 after refusing to apologise to then Land Reform Minister Utoni Nujoma, whom he accused of resettling people from other regions into the south of the country ahead of the Nama.

Policies

Swartbooi has been a vocal advocate of land restitution and restorative justice for

landless Landlessness is the quality or state of being without land, without access to land, or without having private ownership of land. Although overlapping considerably, landlessness is not a necessary condition of poverty. In modern capitalist societies ...

Namibians who were dispossessed of their land, including indigenous communities. The party's youth wing is the LPM Youth and Student Command Element.

Electoral history

Presidential elections

National Assembly elections

The party took part in the 2024 Namibian general election and gained one seat in the

Parliament of Namibia The Parliament of Namibia is the national legislature of Namibia. It is a bicameral legislature consists of two houses: the National Council of Namibia, National Council (upper house) and the National Assembly of Namibia, National Assembly (lowe ...

, in addition to its previous four seats, which the party won in the

2019 Namibian general election Nineteen or 19 may refer to: * 19 (number) * One of the years 19 BC, AD 19, 1919, 2019 Films * ''19'' (film), a 2001 Japanese film * ''Nineteen'' (1987 film), a 1987 science fiction film * '' 19-Nineteen'', a 2009 South Korean film * '' D ...

. Its leader, Bernadus Swartbooi, was the party's presidential candidate and achieved the fourth strongest support nationally by receiving 4.65% of the national vote.

Regional Councilors elections

In 2023, Keetmanshoop by-election, LPM candidate Petrus Labuschagne won by 1,270 votes to claim victory for

Keetmanshoop Keetmanshoop is a town in the ǁKaras Region of southern Namibia. It is named after , a German Empire, German industrialist and benefactor of the city. Keetmanshoop had a population of 27,862 people in 2023. History Before the colonial era, ...

Rural Constituency Regional Councilor.

References

2018 establishments in Namibia Agrarian socialist parties Democratic socialist parties in Africa Environmentalism in Namibia Federalist parties Political parties established in 2018 Political parties in Namibia Progressive International Progressive parties Social democratic parties in Africa Socialist parties in Namibia {{Namibia-party-stub