Namibia elects Nandi-Ndaitwah as first female president
(FILES) The South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) presidential candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah clenches her fist as she attends a campaign rally in Windhoek on November 24, 2024, ahead of Namibia’s general election due on November 27 to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly. – Namibia’s Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah from the ruling SWAPO party has won presidential elections with 57.31 percent of the vote, the election commission announced on December 3, 2024. (Photo by SIMON MAINA / AFP)
Namibia’s ruling SWAPO party was declared winner Tuesday of last week’s disputed elections, ushering in the southern African country’s first woman president after a disputed vote that the main opposition has already said it does not recognise.
Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah took just over 57 percent of ballots followed by the candidate for the main opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) with 25.5 percent, the election authority announced.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, becomes the first woman to rule the mineral-rich southern African country that has been governed by the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
The November 27 election was a test of SWAPO’s 34-year grip on power, with the IPC attracting some support from younger generations more concerned by unemployment and inequality than loyalty to liberation-era parties.
Voting was extended to November 30 after logistical and technical problems, including a shortage of ballot papers, led to long queues. Some voters gave up on the first day of voting after waiting for up to 12 hours.
The IPC said this was a deliberate attempt to frustrate voters and it would not accept the results.
Its presidential candidate Panduleni Itula, 67, said last week there were a “multitude of irregularities”.
The “IPC shall not recognise the outcome of that election”, he said on Saturday, the last day of the extended vote. The party would “fight… to nullify the elections through the processes that are established within our electoral process”, he said.
In reaction to Tuesday’s announcement of the SWAPO victory, IPC spokesperson Imms Nashinge said the party maintained this position.
Itula last week called on his party’s supporters to be calm but also “stand firm to ensure that we shall not be robbed neither denied our democratic right to choose our leaders.”
An organisation of southern African human rights lawyers serving as election monitors also said the delays at the ballot box were intentional and widespread.
