The Namibian government has allocated about N$ 103,6 million since 1997 to the political parties represented in the National Assembly. This is based on an allocation formula based on the proportion of votes received in elections and the amount of government funds available, being approximately 0.2% of government revenues. In his presentation on "The life of a party - the hidden role of money in Namibian politics" researcher Martin Boer told meeting on Monday that the funds helped the parties to run their offices, adminstration and organisational work. The lion share of the funds went to SWAPO, which received N$ 13,7 million in the 2002/03 financial year and N$ 19,1 million in the current year. The CoD received N$ 1,9 million this year and N$ 1,7 in 2002/03. The DTA got slightly more: N$ 2,2 and 2.4 million respectively. The Monitor Action Group, which only has one MP in parliament, was allocated N$ 316 000 and N$ 284 000 in 2002 and 2003.

Martin Boer did the analysis of party funding for the Institute of Public Policy

Research (IPPR) and the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Namibia. According to Boer, party funding from government and private donors was welcome as long as it was done in an open and transparent manner. In June 2003, the SWAPO party received US$ 30 000 from the Chinese Communist Party. In 1998, the DTA admitted it had received some R 185 million in secret funding from the apartheid government of South Africa before indepenedence.The funds were channelled through Democratic Media Holdings. Boer wrote in his study that recently the DTA and the Republican Party had both received N$ 28 000 from the South African Electricity Company (SELCo) to help pay for municipal elections. SELCo has landed a controversial contract from the Keetmanshoop Municipality to outsource its electricity distribution and billing services.

Wolfgang Kleine, head of the Hanns Seidel Foundation in Namibia, stressed that obne of the biggest problems of Namibia‘s political parties was the fact that members do not pay their dues (membership fees) regularly. Other observers felt that although the system of party financing could change, Swapo should not be „penalised for being popular".