Namibia will have its first female leader after VP wins presidential election for the ruling party

Namibia's vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, of the ruling South West Africa People's Organization, (SWAPO) waves as she casts her vote in a presidential election in Windhoek, Namibia, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Esther Mbathera)

WINDHOEK, Namibia (AP) — Namibia elected its first female leader as Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was declared the winner Tuesday of a presidential election last week that was tarnished by technical glitches that caused a three-day extension to allow votes to be cast, and rejected as illegal by opposition parties.

The 72-year-old Nandi-Ndaitwah won with 57% of the vote, defying predictions that she might be forced into a runoff.

Her ruling SWAPO party also retained its parliamentary majority, although by a very thin margin, and extended its 34-year hold on power since the southern African country gained independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

Namibia, a sparsely populated country of around 3 million on the southwestern coast of Africa, has a reputation for being one of the continent’s more stable democracies and the problems around the election have caused consternation.

Last Wednesday’s vote was marred by shortages of ballot papers and other problems that led election officials to extend voting until Saturday. Opposition parties have said the extension is unconstitutional, and some have pledged to join together in a legal appeal to have the election invalidated.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia, which ran the election, rejected opposition calls for a redo of the vote.

It has undermined Nandi-Ndaitwah’s place in history. She is set to become her country’s fifth president since independence and a rare female leader in Africa. She was a member of Namibia’s underground independence movement in the 1970s and received part of her higher education in the then-Soviet Union.

She was promoted to vice president in February after President Hage Geingob died while in office. Nangolo Mbumba, who became president after Geingob’s death, didn’t run in the election.

The ruling SWAPO party won 51 seats in the parliamentary vote, only just passing the 49 it needed to keep its majority and narrowly avoiding becoming another long-ruling party to be rejected in southern Africa this year. It was SWAPO’s worst parliamentary election result.

A mood of change has swept across the region, with parties that led their countries out of white minority or colonial rule in neighboring South Africa and Botswana both losing their long-held political dominance.

South Africa’s African National Congress, which freed the country from the racist system of apartheid, lost its 30-year majority in an election in May and had to form a coalition. Botswana’s ruling party was stunningly removed in a landslide in October after governing for 58 years since independence from Britain.

Mozambique’s long-ruling Frelimo has been accused of rigging an October election and has faced weeks of violent protests against its rule.

SWAPO faced similar challenges as those countries, with frustration at high unemployment and economic hardship, especially among young people, driving a desire for era-ending change.

In a brief speech after the results were announced late Tuesday night, Nandi-Ndaitwah said Namibians had voted for peace, stability and youth empowerment.

“We are going to do what we promised you during the campaigns. Thank you for your confidence and trust in us,” she said. Nandi-Ndaitwah was also due to address the nation on Wednesday morning.

“SWAPO Wins. Netumbo Wins. Namibia Wins. Now Hard Work,” the ruling party posted on its official account on social media site X.

Some opposition parties boycotted the announcement by the Electoral Commission of Namibia at its results center in the capital, Windhoek. The commission has been roundly criticized for its running of the vote, with many angry Namibians complaining they had to wait hours and sometimes over multiple days for the chance to vote.

Just over 1 million votes were cast out of 1.4 million registered voters, according to the electoral commission.

Panduleni Itula, the leading opposition candidate from the Independent Patriots for Change party, was second in the presidential election with 25% of the vote. His party won the second-largest number of seats in Parliament behind SWAPO.

Itula and his party have led the criticism of the vote and said they will lodge their appeal against the election this week. Other opposition parties said they will join that legal challenge.

Itula has said that thousands of voters may have been prevented from voting as only some polling stations allowed an extension. “This election has violated the very tenets of our Electoral Act. Namibians deserve the right to choose their leaders freely and fairly, not through a rigged process,” he said.

Namibia is a former German colony that came under South African control after World War I and its Black majority was later subjected to some of South Africa’s apartheid policies. SWAPO was at the forefront of the battle for independence from South Africa.

While the country has swaths of desert running through it, it has diamond and uranium resources and untapped oil and gas off its coast that is being explored by international companies and could make it a major producer of both.

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