Vote tests Swapo’s dominance
The elections come during a three-year recession, high unemployment, inequality and a fishing scandal
When Namibians voted on Wednesday, the ruling party faced a rare challenge to its dominance after a recession and a corruption scandal fuelled discontent. But analysts believe the opposition remains too weak and divided to put up a credible fight in the presidential and parliamentary vote, with Swapo continuing to bask in the legacy of its liberation struggle pedigree. The party has ruled the sparsely populated nation since independence from South Africa in 1990.
President Hage Geingob, who cast his vote at Mandume Primary School in Windhoek, is expected to win, but not with the dominant 87% of votes he garnered in 2014. The president was the first to vote at the school.
“Let [Namibians] come out and peacefully participate in their democratic right,” Geingob said. While the incumbent was confident of victory, he promised he would accept defeat if he lost. “This is not the war, this is not the end of the world. We are just exercising our democratic right.”
As polls closed, voters were still lined up to cast their ballot at some polling stations.
Namibia introduced electronic voting machines in 2014, the first country in Africa to do so. The machines, which are meant to speed up voting, have been criticised by the opposition, which claims the absence of paper records raises the prospect of fraud. But the electoral tribunal threw out an application by Panduleni Itula, an independent presidential candidate, to ban the machines.
First time voter Kaino Mbeeli, 25, bemoaned the slow pace of queues, saying the line had hardly moved since he arrived. “I am not willing to go home without voting ... because I really want my vote to count so I’m just going to stay here until my vote is heard,” said the medical graduate.
The government took another hit this month when Wikileaks released documents alleging corruption in the fishing industry, its second most important sector after mining.
The “fish rot” files suggested that government