Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of SWAPO has been declared winner of the 2024 Namibia presidential election.
Nandi-Ndaitwah was declared winner with 57% of the vote, against her fiercest opponent Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) with 25.5%.
Nandi-Ndaitwah becomes the first female president of the South Western nation, in its short history of Independence.
The country became independent in 1990 from apartheid South Africa through a protracted liberation struggle that spanned 23 years.
The Southwest Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), the party of Independence has not left power since then. For 34 years, it has achieved electoral victory.
However, this has been fiercely contested by all opposition parties, as fraudulent and sham.
Itula and a number of other opposition parties have lamented against undemocratic practices in the election, and have promised to challenge the outcome in court.
“The rule of law has been grossly violated and we cannot call these elections by any means or measure as free, fair and legitimate,” he said on Saturday, the last day of the vote.
This was after the November 27th election was extended by three days after technical difficulties and insufficient ballot papers.
The opposition opined that this was illegal and unconstitutional.
Namibia has voted for peace
Speaking after her declaration, the first woman president of the country stated that the country had voted for “peace and stability.”
Namibia is part of the Southern African Development Cooperation (SADC), a regional body bringing together 16 countries in the Southern part of Africa, with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) being the northernmost member.
Four of these (South Africa, Mauritius, Botswana, and Mozambique) have had elections in the year 2024, most of which have upset the old guard liberation movements.
In South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the oldest party in the bloc lost its majority for the first time since the 1994 elections and was forced into a power sharing arrangement with opposition parties.
In Botswana, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which had led the country since 1966 lost power to the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC).
For three months now, the ruling party in Mozambique (FRELIMO)’s election has been contested in the streets by the opposition PODEMOS that claims the election was stolen.
The fall of SWAPO could have continued the wind of change in the SADC region, against the hegemonic liberation movements of the South.
Nandi-Ndaitwah
The former president Hage Geingob died of cancer at 82, in the Lady Pohamba hospital in Windhoek, February 2024.
Even alive, Geingob was not eligible to stand, since he had served his second term, and Namibia has presidential terms limit.
Nandi-Ndaitwah was sitting vice president, to Nangolo Mbumba before she was declared leader.
She was SWAPO Women’s League leader (1991-1994), Minister for Tourism, (2010-12), Minister for Women affairs and child welfare (2000-2005), Minister of Information, (2005-2010), Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (1990-1996) and Foreign Affairs (2012-2015)
In 2015, she became Deputy Prime Minister until February 2024, when she was named Vice President at the demise of Geingob.
In March 2023, Geingob named her as the 2024 presidential candidate, and therefore the caretaker president Nangolo Mbumba was only waiting for her day, to handover the mantle of power.
