Following last week’s contentious election, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a member of the ruling South West Africa People’s Organization (Swapo), was elected as Namibia’s first female president.
According to the electoral commission, she received over 57% of the vote, while Panduleni Itula, her nearest opponent, received 26%.
However, Itula declared on Saturday that his party will not accept the results, claiming election malpractice, after logistical issues and a three-day extension to voting in some regions of the nation.
As a result, the majority of opposition parties abstained from Tuesday night’s results announcement in Windhoek, the capital.
Background
Since gaining independence in 1990, Swapo has ruled the sizable but thinly populated southern African nation.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, the current vice-president and a party mainstay, is a dependable leader who has held top government positions for 25 years.
Since Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan is now Africa’s only female president, she will be joining an elite group once she takes office.
In the most recent presidential election in 2019, Itula, a dentist by training and a member of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), managed to undermine Swapo’s popularity by lowering its vote share from 87% five years prior to 56%. Itula is regarded as more charismatic than Nandi-Ndaitwah.
The IPC has stated that it will “pursue justice through the courts” and has urged anyone who believes that the electoral commission’s poor handling prevented them from casting a ballot to speak with the police.
The fight for nationhood against South Africa’s apartheid regime was spearheaded by Swapo. There had been considerable conjecture that it would follow in the footsteps of other liberation parties in the area prior to last Wednesday’s general election.
Following the October election, the Botswana Democratic Party was ousted from office after nearly 60 years, while the African National Congress of South Africa lost its parliamentary majority in May.
