Staff Reporter
WINDHOEK, DEC. 1 — Namibia’s main opposition party has declared that it will not recognize the results of this week’s general election, citing logistical issues and alleged irregularities. Voting was extended in several areas due to these complications.
In a statement on Saturday, Panduleni Itula, the presidential candidate for the opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), alleged there were “glaring and undeniable” electoral malpractices. Itula aimed to unseat the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), which has governed Namibia since its independence in 1990. Swapo’s candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, is vying to become the country’s first female president.
Voting, which began on Wednesday, continued in some parts of the country until Saturday due to a shortage of ballot papers and technical malfunctions. Namibia, a geographically vast nation with a population of about three million, has approximately half its citizens registered to vote.
“We shall not, under any circumstances, recognize the outcome of the 2024 election, which, in our opinion, is still illegitimately ongoing,” Itula said at a press conference on Saturday. He called for calm while announcing that the IPC would “pursue justice through the courts.” The party also urged individuals who felt disenfranchised due to the electoral commission’s alleged mismanagement to file complaints with the police.
Meanwhile, vote counting is underway. Results from 10 of Namibia’s 121 constituencies show Nandi-Ndaitwah leading with 48% of the vote, compared to Itula’s 30%. A candidate must secure more than 50% of the votes to win in the first round. Otherwise, the election will proceed to a second-round run-off.
Swapo, which spearheaded Namibia’s liberation struggle against apartheid South Africa, has dominated the nation’s politics for 34 years. However, its popularity has waned. In the 2019 presidential election, Swapo’s vote share dropped below 60% for the first time.
The party’s struggles mirror those of other liberation movements in southern Africa. Earlier this year, South Africa’s African National Congress lost its outright parliamentary majority, and last month, the Botswana Democratic Party was ousted from power after nearly six decades of dominance.
