General elections were held in Namibia to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly.[1][2][3] Initially scheduled on 27 November 2024, these were later extended in some areas to 30 November due to poor planning. Opposition parties decried the move, boycotting the declaration of results and pledging to challenge the results of the election in court. They were the country's seventh general elections since gaining independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
On 3 December 2024, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the ruling SWAPO party was declared the winner of the election. She is set to become Namibia's first female president. The National Assembly elections saw SWAPO reduced to 51 seats, a bare majority of three. It was SWAPO's weakest showing since Namibia's independence in 1990.
Background
Outgoing president Hage Geingob died on 4 February 2024 whilst receiving treatment for cancer and was replaced by his vice-president, Nangolo Mbumba. Mbumba announced that he had no intention of running for president.[4] He will serve out the remainder of Geingob's term which expires on 21 March 2025.[5]
In 2019, the ruling SWAPO party received 56% of the vote, down from 87% in 2014. SWAPO, which gained its base fighting against apartheid in 1990, is seemingly losing support among youth voters, who are dissatisfied with low employment rates. The current unemployment rate is around 20%.[6][7]
Prior to the election, online disinformation campaigns targeted various candidates. These campaigns included false allegations of opposition candidate Panduleni Itula being a "British agent"; purported footage of another opposition candidate, Bernadus Swartbooi, making tribalist statements towards Itula; and an artificially-generated image of SWAPO candidate Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah fainting at rallies. Various politicians accused the ZimbabweanZANU–PF of spreading false information.[8]
Electoral system
The President of Namibia is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives more than 50% in the first round of voting, a run-off will be held. No previous presidential votes in Namibia have gone to a second round.[9]
As president Geingob was ineligible for re-election after having served two consecutive terms, he selected deputy prime minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to run for president as a candidate of his party, the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO), of which she was also vice-president, in 2023.[12] Upon Geingob's death, she was appointed vice president by president Mbumba. She will become the first female president of Namibia.[13][7]
Voting was marred by logistical and technical problems such as malfunctioning voter identification tablets and insufficient ballot papers, causing long queues and the extension of voting hours by the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) until 28 November. The IPC accused the ECN of "deliberately suppressing voters and deliberately trying to frustrate voters from casting their vote".[15] Following complaints from opposition parties, the ECN announced a further extension of voting hours for 29 and 30 November at 36 selected polling locations in Windhoek as well as in the Kunene, Oshana and Oshikoto regions.[16][17] Representatives of the IPC, PDM and AR expressed dissatisfaction with the limited selection of polling locations for the voting extension.[18] Legal experts and the IPC have called into question the legality of the voting extension.[19][20]African Union (AU) election observers criticised the ECN's decision to extend voting for causing confusion.[21] The IPC accused the ECN of "deliberately trying to dissuade voters from voting".[22] The AU observer mission gave the ECN a transparency score of just 50%.[21]
On 29 November, the ECN extended voting until the night of 30 November. The IPC alleged that this extension was illegal and accused SWAPO of committing fraud. Election monitors, consisting of southern African human rights lawyers, claimed that delays were intentional. Panduleni Itula declared that "the IPC shall not recognize the outcome of that election."[23][22] The opposition refused to recognise the results[24] and announced plans to file legal challenges.[25]
A preliminary investigation by the AU carried out on 29 November did not find evidence of election misconduct.[26]
On 3 December 2024, Nandi-Ndaitwah was declared the victor with 57% of the vote,[28][29] avoiding a runoff election which was predicted to occur.[30][31] She became the first woman to be elected as president of Namibia[32][28][33] and will be one of two women presidents in Africa, alongside Samia Suluhu Hassan of Tanzania.[33] In a speech to supporters, Nandi-Ndaitwah stated "the Namibian nation has voted for peace and stability."[31][30] The results showed the weakest showing for SWAPO since Namibia's independence, with the party barely receiving a majority in parliament.[32][30][31]Bloomberg identified the result as "broad policy continuity in a nation that's on the verge of becoming a major hydrocarbons producer", noting the recent discovery of offshore deposits in the Orange Basin.[32]
Panduleni Itula, the second-place candidate, declared that there was a "multitude of irregularities" and would "fight... to nullify the elections through the processes that are established within our electoral process."[28] Opposition parties pledged to challenge the election extension in court.[29][34] Itula criticized the opening of only selective polling stations, which may have prevented thousands of voters from casting their vote.[30] The opposition parties boycotted the announcement of the official results that took place in Windhoek.[33][30] Calls for a repeat of the election by the opposition was rejected by the ECN.[30] The Forum of German-Speaking Namibians noted that doubts caused by the extension can lead to governmental distrust, and "it is in the hands of the ECN to avoid this slippery path to chaos and violence."[35]
On 13 December, the Namibian electoral court ordered the ECN to allow the IPC and the LPM to obtain access to electoral data as part of their electoral protest.[36]
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