Namibia set for first female president as disputed election count advances 

Namibia appears set to get its first female president, with Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah holding a healthy lead as the count from last week’s disputed election proceeds.

With 65.57 percent of votes counted, results released early on Tuesday on the election commission’s portal showed governing party candidate Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, leading the race with 54.82 percent of the vote.

Results were initially expected a few days after the November 27 poll, but voting was extended by three days at several polling stations following technical difficulties and ballot paper shortages.

The main opposition Independent Patriots for Change, whose candidate Panduleni Itula trails with 28 percent, has already rejected the election as a sham.

The votes counted so far are for 79 of 121 constituencies, including all but two in the capital, Windhoek. Of the nearly 1.5 million registered voters, 73 percent cast ballots, the electoral commission said.

Currently vice president, Nandi-Ndaitwah of the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), could be forced into a second-round run-off vote if she does not claim more than 50 percent of votes when all results are in later this week.

Namibians vote separately for members of the National Assembly, and with 66.4 percent of the votes tallied, SWAPO led the ballot with 56.38 percent. Independent Patriots for Change was running at 19.23 percent.

Results were initially expected a few days after the November 27 poll, but voting was extended to November 29 and November 30 at several polling stations after some voters were unable to cast their ballots on election day due to technical difficulties.

Logistical and technical problems, including a shortage of ballot papers, led to long queues that meant some voters gave up on the first day of voting after waiting for up to 12 hours.

The opposition claimed the extension was illegal, undermining the vote in the Southern African country, which has a largely smooth history of elections and is praised as one of the region’s more stable democracies.

SWAPO has led the mineral-rich country of about three million people since leading it to independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990, but high youth unemployment and enduring inequalities have disenchanted younger voters.

Opposition parties have promised to challenge the validity of the election in court. Opposition leader Itula said there were a “multitude of irregularities” and no matter the result, “the IPC shall not recognise the outcome of that election”.

“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.

Other opposition parties said they will join the case. “It is about our country, it’s about our democratic credentials, it’s about the country that must work for everybody, the poor and the rich. It cannot only work for those who want to remain in power by hook or [by] crook,” said McHenry Venaani, the leader of the opposition Popular Democratic Movement and a candidate in the presidential election.