It is a time of change in Africa as Namibia elects its first female president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Namibia has voted for a new president and a more diverse parliament in its seventh election since gaining independence from South Africa in 1990. It was initially scheduled for November 27, 2024, but poor planning in some areas meant the vote was held until November 30. The opposition condemned the move, boycotted the manifesto and challenged the polls in court. However, these complaints are starting to subside due to widespread respect for the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and the disappointing performance of the ruling SWAPO party. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the ruling SWAPO party was elected as Namibia’s first female president. However, in the parliamentary elections, SWAPO was reduced to 51 seats, a majority of three. SWAPO, which gained ground fighting apartheid in the 1990s, has recently failed to attract young Namibia voters angry about high unemployment.
An ECN spokesperson advised me:
We are in a dilemma. Although we command great respect from all political parties, we conduct elections based on modern technology that does not work well across our country. We know that 2019 was a disaster when machines failed us. We got something back from the technical mistakes there. In some areas, polls had to be postponed until at least November 30. With IT not yet ready, we are still faced with the challenge of delivering modern, Western-style elections. If you fail, people naturally have doubts… It’s a challenge.
Prior to the election, online disinformation campaigns targeted various candidates. This included false claims that Panduleni Itula was a “British agent”. Another opposition candidate, Bernadus Swartbooi, is believed to be seen making tribalistic remarks towards Itula. And a satire on the next president. Various politicians have also accused Zimbabwe’s ZANU-PF of spreading disinformation.
A SWAPO spokesperson explained:
We see this election as a victory for the coronation of our party’s first female president, and as a signal that we must work harder to make this country a better place, improve our economy, create jobs, and attract investment. . And to increase prosperity… We know SWAPO can’t trade on 1989 nostalgia. But we know that Netumbo will make this country great again… And I know that better times lie ahead for everyone.
I first came to Namibia through the United Nations Mission (UNTAG), which was established in 1989 to support Namibia’s transition to independence. I previously observed post-independence elections (2019) and returned for the November 2024 elections. The period after 1989 was a time of great change as the new government introduced equitable and progressive policies. The path to such reform has been blunted by political intransigence and incestuous party infighting over the past decade. The return before Covid was dramatic and the pace of reform between UNTAG and 2019 was immeasurably better than it is now. Prior to UNTAG, he held the position of UN Commissioner for Namibia (formerly UN Commissioner for South-West Africa). UNGA was renamed the UN Commissioner for Namibia in 1968, and Namibia became independent on March 21, 1990. All of them were denied status by South Africa.) It was the Irishman Seán MacBride and the Finnish Martti Ahtisaari who led UNTAG in April 1989. Effective decolonization of Namibia.
In the November 1989 election, 98% of registered voters turned out to vote. The election was certified as free and fair by the UN Special Representative, with SWAPO winning 57% of the vote, just under two-thirds of the vote. The opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance won 29% of the vote. Namibia is a multi-party democracy, but the South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) has ruled since independence and the 2024 elections are all in evidence of public discontent with party hacking in Namibia.
Today, there are many areas of dissatisfaction, such as chronic poverty and high unemployment. Protections for civil liberties are generally strong, but ethnic minorities accuse the government of favoring the ethnic Ovambo majority in allocation of services. The nomadic San experience extreme poverty and social exclusion. Other human rights issues include police brutality and discrimination against women and LGBT+ people. In 2019, SWAPO’s late Hage Geingob was re-elected president with 56.3% of the vote. International observers considered the polls peaceful and credible, but concerns were raised about electronic voting machines, waiting times for votes, and delays in counting and releasing results. In 2024, these concerns were (largely) addressed by the NEC, but SWAPO turnout fell even further.
Both the 2024 and 2019 polls have been declared fair by international observers, but concerns have been raised about other aspects of the process. The 2019 election was dominated by controversy over the use of electronic machines, and the replacement of paper ballots in 2024 has largely addressed these concerns. In 2024, the majority of minority interests further undermined SWAPO’s historic dominance. In particular, the opposition party currently controls major cities such as Windhoek, Walvis Bay, and Swakopmund. A common explanation is that this trend reflects concerns about SWAPO’s declining popularity and increasing patronage, but these more competitive outcomes also reflect the natural evolution of a healthy multiparty system. Many of Namibia’s opposition parties are offshoots of SWAPO, but they remain relatively weak and underfunded. Nonetheless, they have been building capacity and organized outreach. Moreover, politics is changing as the proportion of young voters increases in cities and post-independence. Their attitude towards SWAPO and its liberation credentials clashes with the older generations of Namibia.
Namibia’s increasingly competitive multi-party system provides opportunities for innovation and democratic self-correction, creating incentives for all parties to demonstrate good governance. These developments could help Namibia overcome the failures of its entrenched and often corrupt ruling party system. The 2024 election environment was supportive of freedom of assembly and freedom of the press, overseen by the ECN, which is widely seen as fair. Namibia’s judiciary is autonomous from political influence. Moreover, Namibia is one of the most open environments for press freedom in Africa, contributing to government accountability.
The 2014 elections are likely to consolidate previous equality gains with major implications for Namibian civil society. Namibia’s Supreme Court granted equal immigration rights to foreign spouses of Namibians in same-sex marriages as foreign spouses in opposite-sex marriages. The ruling sparked an anti-LGBT+ backlash. Congress then passed legislation banning recognition of same-sex marriage and explicitly ignoring the Supreme Court ruling. The new president will likely push for a more progressive equality agenda. Namibia has pledged to promote greater equality of rights, political pluralism and wider social participation at the local government level. One Netumbo supporter repeatedly told me that the president-elect sincerely hopes that all Namibians “will be able to enjoy the right to organize various political parties or competitive political groups of their choice in a political system free from undue obstacles.” .
This is the goal pursued by the UN and other international human rights organizations. Nonetheless, there are inherent problems with the system Netumbo inherited. Although Namibian political parties are free to form and operate, and registration requirements are not onerous, candidate registration costs and campaign financing still place an undue burden on smaller political parties. The political parties that hold seats in parliament receive public support each year based on their representation in parliament, which continues to disproportionately benefit SWAPO. Smaller parties lack financial resources or a national membership base, which hinders their ability to mobilize support.
It remains to be seen how the new president will be able to reconcile the threats from his SWAPO colleagues. She has expressed a desire to tweak the system to allow the opposition to increase its financial support, but her SWAPO enemies will be brandishing a sword for her on this point. Minor parties, historically considered weak and divided, made a big jump in the local elections in November 2020 and are poised to do well in the next local elections. With the opposition ousting SWAPO from the two-thirds majority it has held since 2014, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndayitwa cannot appear weak in appeasing minorities and must maintain SWAPO’s base support if he is to remain in power. .
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