Swapo candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has taken an early lead in Namibia’s 2024 presidential election as results continue to be announced gradually.
Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) chairperson Elsie Nghikembua announced additional results on Sunday afternoon to take the number of constituencies tallied to 23 in the presidential election and 25 in the National Assembly election. This is out of 121 constituencies in the country.
According to the ECN’s results tracking website, Nandi-Ndaitwah is leading the pack with 51.51% of counted votes going in her favour.
She is followed by Independent Patriots for Change leader Panduleni Itula, who has 29.93% of the votes so far, while Landless People’s Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi’s 11 375 votes give him a 7.49% share of the votes.
As of 17h00 on Sunday, 18.03% of the votes were counted with a national turnout of 65.46%.
Political analyst Johan Coetzee believes Nandi-Ndaitwah is going to outperform her party’s National Assembly results.
“She will probably get more votes than the party because she has more integrity than the party itself. It will definitely be a well-contested election,” Coetzee says.
Coetzee also cautions that the available results cannot be taken as a reflection of what the final election results would be.
“It won’t be the outcome for the rest of Namibia. The bigger ones are coming out, Erongo and //Kharas. I think the opposition can further increase theirs to be somewhere in the 30% at least,” he added.
As she announced the results, Nghikembua said the nation must understand the detailed nature of the vote-counting process.
“We, therefore, appeal to all Namibians to continue exercising patience and understanding as we complete this crucial phase. The hallmark of a credible election is not speed but accuracy and
transparency,” she said.
When asked about how she reacted to the IPC saying it will not accept the results, Nghikembua told The Namibian that is not the ECN’s call to make.
“That is not our call to make. We’ll deal with it when it comes,” she said.
More results are expected to be announced on Sunday evening.
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