WINDHOEK, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Namibia’s registered 1.3 million voters go to the polls Wednesday in a general election that promises to be far removed from the overwhelming victories enjoyed by former liberation movement SWAPO since independence in the resource-rich southern African country in 1990.
Foreign interests abound in this sparsely populated nation of about 2.5 million people, with sometimes damaging results.
Two cabinet ministers resigned this month after Iceland’s biggest seafood company, Samherji, was accused of paying bribes to Namibian politicians and officials for access to Namibia’s fishing quota, a key economic resource.
The ruling SWAPO has been shaken by the scandal and by the weakening economy, which has shed thousands of jobs. Some 46% of youth are unemployed. Meanwhile more than 700,000 people have registered for drought relief as hunger grows.
In the last election, in 2014, SWAPO won 80% percent of the vote, its highest share ever, while President Hage Geingob won 87% of the presidential vote.
This time the 78-year-old Geingob faces an unexpected challenge in Dr. Panduleni Itula, a dentist. Itula is standing as an independent candidate but retains his SWAPO membership.
Other candidates include the official opposition Popular Democratic Movement, led by 42-year-old McHenry Venaani. It has largely been campaigning around the issue of SWAPO’s two-thirds majority in parliament, which Venaani says has fueled impunity and graft.
The Landless People’s Movement led by Bernadus Swartbooi has focused on land expropriation in Namibia, which has one of the world’s highest inequality rates.
Provisional yet unconfirmed counts from special voting that took place at diplomatic missions and for members of the armed forces show Geingob and Itula neck-and-neck in the presidential race, while SWAPO is ahead in the National Assembly race.
The election will include more than 400,000 voters who were born in or after Namibia gained its independence from South Africa. — NNN-AGENCIES