Namibia’s Ruling Party On Edge As Country Holds Presidential Polls

The small south African nation of Namibia goes to the polls on Wednesday for presidential and legislative elections. The ruling Swapo party is facing its tightest race since the country became independent in 1990.

The South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) led Namibia to independence from South Africa in 1990 and has been the dominant party since, although it did lose ground at the last elections in 2019.

The incumbent president, 83-year-old Nangolo Mbumba, came to power in February following the death of his predecessor, Hage Geingob at the age of 82.

The Swapo presidential candidate in Wednesday’s elections is Mbumba’s vice president, 72-year-old Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah – known as NNN.

A political veteran with a high chance of becoming the country’s first female president, NNN has been a member of the national assembly since 1990 and a minister since 2000.

Among her promises is the creation of jobs “by attracting investments using economic diplomacy”.

Five candidates

NNN is up against four other cadidates, including former Swapo member Panduleni Itula.

The 67-year-old lawyer and founder of the Independent Patriots for Change party got 29.4 percent of votes in the last elections in 2019, losing to Geingob who won with 56 percent.

The third candidate is McHenry Venaani – leader of Namibia’s largest opposition party in parliament, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), which holds 16 out of 96 elected seats.

Venaani came a distant third in the 2019 presidential race with only 5 percent of votes.

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Also in the running is Bernadus Swartbooi, 47, is the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), a progressive party advocating for land redistribution and restorative justice.

A former member of Swapo, Swartbooi won 3 percent of votes in the 2019 presidential election.

Finally, there is Job Amupanda, 37, is a former Swapo youth leader who fell out with the party and founded a leftist political movement called Affirmative Repositioning in 2014.

Like the LPM, the party focuses on land reform and redistribution of foreign-owned land.

Changing of the guard?

With results expected as early as Saturday, there are fears the Swapo will face the same fate as other liberation-era parties crushed in elections across the region in recent months.

In the last six months, South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) lost its parliamentary majority, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was ousted after almost six decades in power, and though the ruling Frelimo won elections in Mozambique, civil society and opposition groups have demonstrated for weeks claiming fraud and demanding change.

How young people in Namibia will vote is a big unknown. Unemployment among 15 to 34 year olds was estimated at 46 percent according to the latest figures from 2018 – almost triple the national average.

“They accuse the government of not providing them meaningful employment opportunities, and the government happens to be Swapo since independence,” said Henning Melber, of the Nordic Africa Institute at the University of Uppsala, Sweden.

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With a population of 2.6 million people, Namibia has one of the world’s lowest population densities at more than three people per square kilometre.

It is also the second most unequal country on earth after South Africa, according to the World Bank in 2023.

It is the driest country in sub-Saharan Africa and takes its name from the Namib, considered the oldest desert in the world and famed for its giant sand dunes. The desert runs along the 1,500-kilometre Atlantic coastline.

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Around two thirds the size of neighbouring South Africa, Namibia is rich in wildlife and game reserves. Tourism accounts for around 7 percent of GDP.

Natural resources

Namibia is the world’s third or fourth biggest natural uranium producer, depending on the year, and supplies the metal to countries producing nuclear power, including France.

Its identified uranium resources are about 5 percent of the world’s known total, according to the World Nuclear Association.

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The first commercial uranium mine started up in 1976 and the industry expects to grow as more countries turn to nuclear power for electricity, including China and India.

Namibia is also rich in diamonds, and hopes to exploit its natural gas and recently discovered offshore oil.

(with newswires)

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