Political analyst says Nandi-Ndaitwah represents gender equality

Political analyst Rekkel Andreas says Namibians should be proud that they elected the country’s first female president.

This comes after Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was elected as the new president of Namibia on Tuesday evening.

Andreas was speaking to Desert Radio on Tuesday.

“And I think Namibians should celebrate her, should celebrate her victory, should celebrate the significance that she represents and women across the board should definitely celebrate,” Andreas said.

According to her, Nandi-Ndaitwah represents a visualisation of what gender equality ideally is supposed to look like.

She added that despite technical issues the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) faced, and reflecting on the sort of conversations leading up to the elections, the results are more or less as anticipated.

Andreas anticipates a strong approach towards economic policies and trying to enhance the country’s economic situation.

She said she is also looking forward to interventions that will yield immediate results for young people.

“Because right now, everybody’s looking at her to see how you are really going to address bread and butter issues,” Andreas said.

Nandi-Ndaitwah won with 638 560 votes, followed by Independent Patriots for Change leader Panduleni Itula with 284 186 votes.

“In the presidential elections, 15 candidates participated . . . By the powers vested in me as the chairperson of the ECN, I do hereby declare that Nandi-Ndaitwah has been duly elected the president of Namibia,” ECN chairperson of commissioners Elsie Nghikembua said on Tuesday evening.

Opposition leaders boycotted the announcement of the 2024 election results, apart from Affirmative Repositioning leader Job Amupanda.

Opposition parties are preparing to challenge the results in court, citing a lack of transparency, recurrent technical problems and potential voter disenfranchisement among their complaints.