The vice president hopes to consolidate SWAPO’s dominance since independence in 1990 amid criticism of the party’s management
MADRID, 26 Nov. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The population of Namibia is called to the polls this Wednesday for a general election from which the first female president in the history of the African country could emerge, given that the main favorite is the current vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, candidate of the party she heads. the country since its independence in 1990.
The South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) party thus aspires to prolong its mandate in Namibia, which has already spanned more than three decades, in elections that come amid the continued decline in its popularity among the population. due to the economic crisis, unemployment and accusations of corruption.
In fact, the party lost its two-thirds majority in the National Assembly in 2019 for the first time since 1994, so Nandi-Ndaitwah faces uncertainty about whether the Government’s actions since then will allow it to achieve victory or whether On the other hand, growing distrust leads the 1.4 million registered voters to hand over to one of the opposition candidates.
The new president of the African country will thus emerge from the polls, who will replace Nangolo Mbumba, who was the Namibian vice president until the death in February of Hage Geingob, who died while receiving treatment for cancer, which led to the appointment of Mbumba to occupy the position temporarily until the scheduled date for the elections.
Geingob was president since 2015, although he had previously been prime minister from 1990 – when the country achieved its independence from Apartheid South Africa – until 2002, a position he held again between 2012 and 2015, becoming one of the main figures policies of the African country, especially due to its weight within SWAPO.
On this occasion, the government party has given its support to Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, who has focused his campaign on the economic situation and high unemployment in Namibia, a country with nearly three million people and which is among the that have the greatest inequalities in the world, according to the World Bank.
The politician joined SWAPO in the sixties, while still a teenager, and later moved to study in the Soviet Union, a country that supported the group and its armed wing, the People’s Liberation Army of Namibia (PLAN). , during the years of struggle for independence.
Subsequently, she was in exile in the seventies and worked for the party in Zambia, becoming the party’s representative for East Africa, after which she was elected as a parliamentarian in 1990 following the independence of the African country, in which she has She was Minister of Women’s Affairs, Information, Environment and Foreign Affairs, a position she held between 2015 and her appointment as vice president.
Namibia’s electoral system contemplates that the head of state is elected directly by the population for a five-year mandate – renewable only once -, for which the candidate with the most votes must obtain more than 50 percent of the votes. the votes, something that on this occasion is in question, according to various experts, due to the erosion of the credibility of the government party.
MAIN OPPOSITORY APPLICANTS
Thus, to Nandi-Ndaitwah’s candidacy is added that of Panduleni Itula, a 67-year-old former dentist who ran as an independent in the 2019 elections, in which he came in second place after collecting nearly 29 percent of the ballots. after enormous tensions with SWAPO, the party to which he belonged at the time.
Itula, founder of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party, had been a member of the government party since the early 1970s, although his differences with Geingob and his intention to run as a candidate – despite the fact that the party had already endorsed the then president– they led him to run as an independent.
In fact, his decision came after he denounced that SWAPO had unconstitutionally supported Geingob and refused to recognize his candidacy – which led the party to expel him after the elections – although this situation was considered one of the main reasons for the electoral disaster of the party, whose followers divided their loyalties at the polls.
Along with his candidacy is that of McHenry Venaani, leader of the main opposition party in Parliament, the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM), which has 16 of the 96 seats in the legislature. Venaani, 47, came third in 2019, when he got only about five percent of the vote.
In 2002, the politician became the youngest Namibian parliamentarian in history and in 2023 he became one of the three candidates to be appointed head of the Herero Traditional Authority, an ethnic group of the Bantu group in southern Africa to which It belongs to about ten percent of Namibia’s population.
On the other hand, the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) – a progressive group that advocates for land redistribution -, Bernadur Swartbooi, and the head of Affirmative Repositioning (AR), Job Amupanda, have also presented their candidacy, although they do not have real chances of winning, according to the main polls.
CONCERN ABOUT THE ECONOMIC SITUATION
The presidential elections, which are held alongside the legislative elections – in which 96 of the 140 members of the National Assembly are elected through multiple constituencies, while another eight are appointed directly by the president – come with the economic crisis in the focus of popular concerns.
The country, rich in mineral resources – including diamonds and uranium – has a dispersed population and in recent years has managed to reduce poverty rates, although inequalities, partly a legacy of the apartheid system in Namibia during its occupation by South Africa, remain “extremely high,” according to the World Bank.
The organization also highlights that the situation has worsened as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, while pointing out that structural limitations to growth undermine productivity and job creation, with nearly 17 percent of the population in poverty. and earning about two euros a day.
Added to this is that the country is one of the driest in sub-Saharan Africa, with very unpredictable rainfall patterns, which affects agricultural and livestock capacity and increases the vulnerability of the population, especially in the face of increased impacts of change. climate over this area of the continent.
For all these reasons, SWAPO will face the growing discontent of the population with the situation at the polls, given that they blame the party for the lack of solutions to this structural situation after 34 years of rule, amidst increasing criticism in southern Africa. to the parties that materialized independence for the current problems.
The situation has already been reflected in the fact that the African National Congress (ANC) lost its historic absolute majority in South Africa in the May elections and the defeat in October of the governing Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) after nearly six decades. in power, as well as the tensions in Mozambique after the announcement of the victory of the candidate of the governmental Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (Frelimo), followed by allegations of fraud.