Swapo and its presidential candidate limped to a dismal win in an election marred by inefficiencies, a two day extension, and questionable decisions that caused most opposition parties to reject it as a sham.
The ruling party’s secretary general Sophia Shaningwa and vice president and president-elect Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah cut subdued figures when the left the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s results centre.
A Swapo victory traditionally sparks celebration, with Shaningwa know to perform as means of taunting Swapo’s opponents. Not this time.
This time Swapo won 51 of the 96 seats in Namibia’s National Assembly election and its candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah garnered 638 560 (57.3%) in the Presidential election. Swapo’s vice president is set to become the first woman president in Namibia’s history.
Relatively new kids on the block, Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), a Swapo splinter party, mustered 220 809 votes while its presidential candidate Panduleni Itula won 284 106 votes. It’s Itula’s second attempt, having also ended second, to Hage Geingob, in 2019.
The elections were marred by ballot shortages from as early as 09h00 on Wednesday 27 November, merely two hours after polls opened. Voters at some polling stations had to wait over three hours for ballot papers that were less than 30 minutes away. Only 62% of 2 521 polling stations across the country’s 121 constituencies opened on time.
The inefficiencies of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) were lashed by various observer missions. The commission’s clumsy approach to communication and a non-existent ballot management system were some of the shortcomings the observer mission pointed out.
Swapo has now lost huge ground two elections in a row dropping from 63 seats in 2019 to 51 seats now causing several senior Swapo figures to miss out on parliamentary seats.
On Tuesday evening, before the ECN hosted President Nangolo Mbumba, the president-elect Nandi-Ndaitwah and high ranking officials, the opposition IPC had issued a statement condemning the results.
“For the first time in the history of Namibia and possibly in the history of elections, votes are being cast concurrently with vote counting and results publication.
The IPC said the voting process was marred by widespread disenfranchisement, brazen voter suppression, “silencing the voices of Namibians yearning for change.”
The only opposition party to attend the short muted event, the Affirmative Repositioning Movement, surprised all and sundry by outperforming both official opposition the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and the Landless People’s Movement.
AR, headed by academic and land activist Job Amupanda managed to garner over 72 000 votes in their first time participating in the national election giving the youthful party six seats.
This year the youth turned up but with 1.4% rejected ballots it is widely accepted that voter education should be a priority.
Swapo has struggled to improve the lives of Namibians, failed to address the housing crisis, has provided no solution for runaway unemployment. While crumbling health and education infrastructure has been a concern for years amidst a rapidly growing population.
The party has also not been successful in shaking the corruption label.
A day before the 2024 elections, vigilant party agents discovered that the ECN was issuing original voters’ cards from its head office. Only duplicate cards should have been issued at that time, and not at the ECN headquarters.
Experts and opposition leaders believe it’s a matter of time before a legal challenge is launched.
