Namibia's opposition calls for vote to be suspended amid confusion
The presidential and legislative polls are a key test for the ruling South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) party that has governed the mineral-rich country since independence 34 years ago and is facing its toughest election challenge yet.
Namibia's opposition on 28 November 2024 called on voting to stop as ballot tallying started late, after long delays forced authorities to keep polling stations open in an election set to test the ruling party's 34-year grip on power. Picture: SIMON MAINA / AFP
WINDHOEK, NAMIBIA - Namibia's opposition called for extended voting and ballot counting to be suspended Thursday after the national election was thrown into disarray by logistics failings and massive delays.
The presidential and legislative polls are a key test for the ruling South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) party that has governed the mineral-rich country since independence 34 years ago and is facing its toughest election challenge yet.
Some voters queued through the night after authorities allowed polling stations to remain open beyond the scheduled closing time of 9:00 pm (1900 GMT) Wednesday because of the long lines of people still waiting to cast their ballots.
Polling stations that processed all their voters meanwhile began tallying the votes.
"We've got polling stations that are releasing results, we've got polling stations that are telling us that they were told to stop with the counting of votes," said Christine Aochamus of the main opposition party, Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
"We've got polling stations that are still allowing people to cast votes, and we've got polling stations where people are lining up and there are no ballots," she said.
"We are going to demand the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) to cease the counting of votes and also to stop the current voting process that is taking place at various polling stations across the country," she told a press conference with 18 other opposition parties.
Armed with folding chairs and umbrellas to cope with the slow-moving lines and blazing sun, Namibians among the 1.5 million registered voters spent hours waiting outside polling stations on Wednesday, some for up to 12 hours.
At the University of Science and Technology in the capital Windhoek, voting stopped at 5:00 am on Thursday, polling officers told AFP.
"It's absolutely disappointing," said Reagan Cooper, a 43-year-old farmer among the hundred or so voters outside the town hall polling station in Windhoek.
"The voters have turned out, but the electoral commission has failed us," Cooper told AFP.
'FRUSTRATE VOTERS'
The IPC is among those who have blamed the electoral body for the long lines and have raised suspicions of foul play.
"We have reason to believe that the ECN is deliberately suppressing voters and deliberately trying to frustrate voters from casting their vote," said Aochamus.
The IPC's leader, former dentist and lawyer Panduleni Itula, is perhaps the strongest challenger to SWAPO's candidate, vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who could become the first woman to lead the sparsely populated nation.
Analysts have said Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, could be forced into a second round if she does not win more than half of votes.
The long queues were "a signal that people really want a change", said Ndumba Kamwanyah, lecturer in the Department of Human Sciences at the University of Namibia.
"For me, it seems it's not good news for the incumbent party," he told AFP.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
SWAPO has governed since leading Namibia to independence from South Africa in 1990 but complaints about unemployment and enduring inequalities are undermining its standing.
Namibia is a major uranium and diamond exporter but not many of its nearly three million people have benefited from that wealth in terms of improved infrastructure and job opportunities, analysts say.
Young people are particularly frustrated with unemployment among 15- to 34-year-olds, estimated at 46 percent, almost triple the national average, according to the latest figures from 2018.