‘Anyone can run for president’

One does not need to be well known to be a president or to lead a country.

So says social activist and director of Women’s Solidarity Namibia Rosa Namises, who expressed her support for women in the 2024 presidential elections. She added that she might even consider running herself.

This follows former deputy executive director of finance Ally Angula announcing last week that she will be running for the Presidency “to fix the broken furniture and make every person feel comfortable.”

Theo Mujoro, the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s chief electoral officer, says anyone can declare their intention to the public to become a presidential candidate.

“There are requirements and there are age limits, everything is in the Namibian Constitution. Everyone at this point can declare their intention, and we will allow the elections to run formally as usual when we announce,” [sic] he says.

An independent presidential candidate is required to deposit N$10 000 into the State Revenue Fund and demonstrate the support of at least 500 registered voters in each region, which is a total of 7 000 voters.

Speaking to The Namibian’s Desert Radio last week, Namises said women need to take up space and change the narrative on politics and social protection issues.

“I am going to join her so people can have lots of choices and bring about change. It’s beautiful, we need to have independent women in politics who are not attached and affiliated to any political party, because being a president does not mean you need to belong to a party,” she said.

Namises has been fighting for human rights, democracy and law reforms since the 1990s.

In 2010, she left the National Assembly and has been serving at Women’s Solidarity Namibia since then.

“Powerful women should come forward. All the party lists are filled by men, let us give women a chance. We will not fight each other,” she said.

Namises said although some candidates are backed up by the ruling party, it does not change anything in the race.

“One can be backed up by the ruling party, but the ruling party also has a negative history . . . It’s time that we detangle from the political party identity. Namibia needs a free spirit and a free person,” she said.

“We need women to highlight social protection issues.We apologise for those who went wrong, and they should leave so women can occupy the space,” she said.

Meanwhile, Angula last week said her trajectory from a refugee camp to a pioneer in her chosen field has given her the power to fulfil certain promises.

“Yet this trajectory places a heavy burden on me to fix the broken furniture so every person can be and feel comfortable, expand the kitchen so everyone can eat, rebuild, replace and repair, so we can all feel re-inspired to make new promises for the ones to come, but not until the old promises are fulfilled for our children.

“That is why I’m running for the president of the government of Namibia,” she said.

Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda also announced his presidential ambitions on 21 March.

Political analyst Ndumba Kamwanyah welcomed Angula’s move, saying it would enlarge the pool of options for voters next year, particularly because she is a woman.

Kamwanyah, however, said he doubts that those who have so far announced themselves as potential candidates are doing so to liberate Namibia from Swapo or any other political party.

Kamwanyah advised presidential candidates not to lose the historical ground that made Namibians fight for the liberation of the country.

He expressed concern over young candidates not being rooted in the historical ideology of liberating the country and making sure no one is excluded.