Namibia starts three months of voter registration ahead of elections
Namibia this week opened a three-month voter registration period, ahead of 27 November elections, which will feature at least three female presidential candidates.
The registration period for the presidential and National Assembly elections is due to run until 1 August.
The Electoral Commission of Namibia said that, on the first day, 25 000 voters were registered.
For the first time since independence, the ruling party, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), will have a female presidential candidate, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 71.
The election is also due to feature Ally Angula, 44, a former Accountant-General of Namibia and Head of State Accounts, as an independent candidate.
Angula says she appeals to the youth, and her motto is: “We are the brave generation, we are getting involved.”
The third woman candidate is Rosa Namises, 66, a career gender activist.
Esther Muinjangue, 61, of the Unity Democratic Organisation, was the only female candidate in 2019. After the elections, she was appointed deputy minister of health and social services.
Her party has yet to announce who will stand, but she’s a frontrunner.
The men, who have shown an interest in the top job, are Landless People’s Movement leader Bernadus Swartbooi, Popular Democratic Movement leader McHenry Venaani, and Patriots for Change’s Panduleni Itula.
Swapo has ruled the country since independence – but, in the most recent election in 2019, the late president Hage Geingob’s party lost a two-thirds majority in Parliament.
Geingob attracted 56% of the vote – down from 87% in 2014 – while his main challenger, Itula, with 26%, stood as an independent after he defected from Swapo.
Nandi-Ndaitwah has already started campaigning – and held a rally at Onyaanya, in the Oshikoto region, on Saturday.
A Swapo central committee member, Martin Shalli, during the rally, hinted that there were some not ready for a female presidential candidate, but she needed all the support she could get.
“May God be with our candidate, comrade Netumbo. May He bless her. May the grace of God follow her everywhere she goes. Let’s all pray for her because there are those who are wishing her bad.
“Respect a person regardless of their status in society. Treat them equal before God and before the law,” he said.
Voter perceptions
The 2019 general election had 1.3 million registered voters and a 60% turnout.
According to a recent Afrobarometer survey, the 2019 elections were considered free and fair, though 30% of respondents felt politically intimidated during the campaign period.
It’s against this background that “most Namibians value elections and overwhelming majorities say that they feel free to join any political organisation and to choose whom to vote for without feeling pressured”.
Some of the key findings by Afrobarometer were that 74% of Namibians supported elections, while 25% said other methods could also do the job.
Source: News24
