Namibia Has Elected its First Female President
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah will be entering office in Namibia at a time when the popularity of the ruling party, SWAPO, has been greatly reduced.
President-Elect from the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, delivers a speech during a campaign rally in Windhoek on November 24, 2024.
Namibia has elected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as its first female president. According to results released by the country’s electoral commission, Nandi-Ndaitwah, candidate for the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO),won the election with 57 percent of the vote. The 72-year-old’s outright win nullifies predictions thata runoff might be needed for her victory.
Panduleni Itula came a distant second, with 26 percent of the vote. However, Itula and his party, Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), are disputing the credibility of the results, calling the process “deeply flawed.”Challengesmarred the elections, including the late opening of some polling stations, long queues, technical malfunctions with electronic voter identification tablets and ballot shortages. The electoral commission issued a directive allowing polling units to be open beyond the planned cutoff time. These complications immediately led to opposition parties threatening to reject the result, with the IPC and Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) accusing the commission of voter suppression.
“The rule of law has been grossly violated, and we cannot call these elections by any means or measure as free, fair, and legitimate,” Itulasaid over the weekend, with provisional results showing he was behind Nandi-Ndaitwah at the time. The IPC and several other opposition parties have vowed to challenge the results in court.
Meanwhile, Nandi-Ndaitwah is celebrating her victory, saying Namibia, “has voted for peace and stability.” The former freedom fighter joined SWAPO as a young woman, and she rose through the ranks to become president after years of serving as foreign affairs minister and deputy prime minister. Following the passing of President Hage Geingob, she was appointed vice president, as he had already selected her to be SWAPO’s next presidential candidate.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, who will join Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan as one of Africa’s two current female presidents, will enter office at a time when the ruling party’s popularity has been greatly reduced. SWAPO has been in power since the country’s independence from apartheid South Africa; however, the party lost its two-thirds majority in parliament for the first time in the 2019 elections.
Unlike inSouth Africa andBotswana, where ruling parties lost the popular vote, SWAPO has narrowly retained its parliamentary majority, winning 51 out of the 96 seats available. The IPC won 20 seats and will now be the official opposition party, taking the position formerly held by the PDM.
For now, Nandi-Ndaitwah and SWAPO maintain the status quo. However, the new president will need toimprove the country’s economy, boost job creation, and change the course of government accountability, as many citizens are unhappy with widespread corruption.
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