Voting underway in Namibia

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the ruling party’s presidential candidate, is aiming to become the country’s first female leader

Voters in Namibia queued outside polling stations on Wednesday to elect a new president and parliament in a tightly contested race.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the candidate for the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), is vying to become Namibia’s first female president by succeeding Hage Geingob, who died in February after nine years in office.

Nandi-Ndaitwah faces a challenging political landscape marked by declining support for SWAPO, which has ruled Namibia since its independence in 1990. Public dissatisfaction over unemployment, poverty, and corruption has eroded the party’s voter base, with support having dropped from 87% in the 2014 presidential election to 56% in 2019.

“The biggest challenge we have in this country now is unemployment,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said after casting her vote in Windhoek. She said job creation was her top priority, particularly for young people, and attributed worsening economic conditions to droughts and the Covid-19 pandemic.  

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Her main rival is Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC). A 67-year-old former dentist and lawyer, Itula won 29% of the vote as an independent presidential candidate in 2019. There are 13 other candidates vying for the presidency.

Polling stations opened at 7am local time (5am GMT) and were scheduled to close at 9pm. However, large crowds remained at some stations late into the night, prompting calls from parties for voting hours to be extended.

Electoral Commission spokesperson Siluka De Wet confirmed to the AFP news agency on Thursday morning that voting was still ongoing in some locations.

Approximately 1.4 million Namibians were registered to vote in the sparsely populated nation of three million people. A candidate must secure over 50% of the vote to avoid a run-off election between the top two contenders.

Preliminary results from some polling stations have started to trickle in, with final outcomes expected in the coming days.

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In neighboring South Africa, the African National Congress, which had ruled the country since the end of Apartheid, lost its majority in a historic election in June.