— by Ruth Thomas William —
“It has been a time of change for Africa with Namibia selecting its first female President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Namibia voted for both a new President and a more diverse National Assembly in the country’s seventh election since gaining independence from South Africa in 1990.”
– Martin Duffy
The 2024 and 2019 polls were both declared fair by international observers, although concerns were raised over other aspects of the process. Controversy around the use of electronic machines dominated the 2019 elections, and the substitution of paper ballots in 2024 largely addressed that concern. In 2024 the greater plurality of minority interests has further unseated the historic dominance of SWAPO. In particular, opposition parties now control the key cities of Windhoek, Walvis Bay, and Swakopmun. This trend reflects SWAPO’s declining popularity and concerns over growing patronage and also reflects the natural evolution of a healthy multiparty system. Namibia’s opposition parties, many of which are spin-offs from SWAPO, remain relatively weak and underfunded. Still, they have been building their capacity and organizational outreach.
Reflecting the future of Namibia with the 2024 election.
The new President will likely force through a more liberal equality agenda. Namibia has pledged itself to encourage greater equality of rights, political pluralism, and wider societal participation at local government levels. These are goals aspired to by several international human rights bodies, including the UN. Even so, there are inherent problems in the system that Netumbo inherits, candidate-registration fees and campaign financing still place an undue burden on smaller parties, Small parties lack financial resources or nationwide membership bases, impeding their ability to mobilize support. It remains to be seen how the new President may reconcile threats from her own SWAPO colleagues. She has expressed a desire to tweak the system, permitting the opposition to increase its financial support, the minority parties who have historically been regarded as weak and fragmented jumped sizably in the prior November 2020 local elections, and are poised to do well at the next provincial-level polls. With opposition dislodging SWAPO from the two-thirds majority it held since 2014, President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah cannot appear weak in placating minorities, and must also maintain SWAPO’s base support to retain power.
