Namibia has its first woman president: What now?

Namibia’s just-concluded presidential and National Assembly elections have been historic on many fronts.

They were the country’s most controversial elections thus far, with accusations of foreign interference and election rigging at the forefront, while at the same time the country elected its first woman president.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the presidential candidate of the Swapo Party of Namibia (Swapo), was announced as the president-elect on Tuesday night, with 57.69% of the vote.

The announcement was made at the headquarters of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) in Windhoek, but many parties were deliberately absent – contributing to a sombre mood.

Multiple parties, including incoming official opposition the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) and the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), boycotted the announcement, as they do not recognise the election results.

COURT CHALLENGE

In a statement issued moments before the announcement, the IPC reaffirmed its decision to challenge the election results in the courts.

“Thousands of ballots remain locked away, their fate unknown, while polling agents across the country await orders from their superiors regarding ballots under their care to be counted and their results announced.

“Polling stations, unlawfully designated as voting centres, continue processing votes under a shroud of illegitimacy,” said the IPC.

Swapo might have kept the Presidency, but it fell short in the National Assembly ballot — securing only 51 seats.

This continued the party’s gradual decline in the National Assembly. It won 77 seats in 2014 and 63 seats in 2019 out of 96.

While Nandi-Ndaitwah’s election is a landmark move for gender representation, Namibia is marred by high rates of sexual abuse and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The United Nations Population Fund estimates that nearly a third of all women in Namibia have experienced physical violence from an intimate partner at some point in their lives.

SMALL VICTORY FOR WOMEN

Award-winning activist Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe says Nandi-Ndaitwah’s appointment was “historic, but immaterial”.

They say the president-elect does not have a track record indicating that women in Namibia will benefit greatly from her presidency.

“For the Swapo party it’s historic, because they have a party leader who was set to become the first woman president, but for the country not so much,” Nthengwe says.

They say Namibia was “in a state of delusion, in which we believe that an elderly woman can solve our social issues”. Nthengwe says Namibia remains patriarchal, because “we still associate women with social issues, but men with politics. We cannot just say that because she is the first woman president, our issues around SGBV and femicide will be resolved”.

First-time voter Ester Eino echoes this sentiment. Eino says Swapo had no prominent focus on women’s rights during its campaign, other than having a woman candidate.

“Swapo has not really identified anything for women, so we don’t know where we stand when it comes to issues like abortion rights and the right to maternity care.”

THE YOUTH VOTE

Data on youth participation in the elections have not been made available by the ECN yet.

Eino says young voters, specifically members of Generation Z, came out in droves, because this was the first time they had the opportunity to make their voices heard.

Young people make up a considerable chunk of Namibia’s population, with 71.1% of the population being under the age of 35.
Gwen Lister, veteran journalist and founder of The Namibian – one of the first newspapers in Namibia to openly criticise the apartheid regime – says Nandi-Ndaitwah’s appointment was a notable moment in Namibia’s history.

“The election of a woman president in the person of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is undoubtedly historic, coming as it will on the 35th anniversary of Namibian independence in 2025, even though the election process itself has been marred by controversy,” she says.

Lister, however, believes Nandi-Ndaitwah will face daunting challenges.

“Not least of all, the need to tackle the most burning issue of spiralling unemployment, especially among an increasingly frustrated youth population, rising levels of corruption and being a woman herself, dealing with the scourge of GBV,” she says.

POLITICAL RESHUFFLE

Namibia’s National Assembly will also see a significant reshuffle – if the IPC’s lawsuit does not render the just-concluded elections null and void.

Two newly registered parties have taken the lead as the opposition in the country’s parliament, with the IPC being the largest. Panduleni Itula’s party, which was established in 2020 after he ran as an independent candidate in the 2019 elections, secured 20.21% of the vote (20 seats) – the most of any newly established party in the country’s history since independence.

Executive director of the Institute for Public Policy Research Graham Hopwwod says although Swapo’s popularity is declining, the party’s regression is not as steep as in other countries in the region.

“However, if this trend continues it will lose its majority in 2029. It would need to take a new approach on a lot of issues, like corruption and service delivery if it wants to survive in the long term,” he says.

Hopwood says Swapo’s leadership would have to change their mindset to accomplish this, but at present there are no signs of this.

INCOMING LEGAL CHALLENGES

Many of the parties – the exact number is not yet known – are gearing up to challenge the elections in the courts.

The IPC has in the past taken the ECN to court over the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) without a paper trail. The court ruled at the time that the EVMs were indeed unlawful, but did not nullify the election.

The IPC’s general national secretary, Christine Aochamus, says despite the IPC’s relatively strong performance in the polls, “nothing has changed”.

The IPC has not yet released the details of its legal challenge, other than stating: “The IPC will not recognise or accept the outcome of this deeply flawed process. Whether the results declare a win, a run-off, or a loss, we will seek to nullify this election in the courts.” The LPM’s spokesperson, Lifalaza Simataa, says the party does not recognise the elections as free and fair and chose to boycott the announcement, while also exploring avenues to challenge the election.

The Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) released a statement on 4 December, a day after the announcement of the election results, saying the party condemned the elections, “which we believe were orchestrated to favour Swapo in collaboration with Zanu-PF”.

The NEFF said it would investigate the conduct of the ECN.

This investigation includes the party demanding an independent audit of the election process and results, consulting with “relevant local and international bodies” to highlight the elections’ supposed irregularities, and possible legal action. – Daily Maverick