MADRID Dec. 1 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The historic South West African People’s Organization (SWAPO) already has an advantage to extend a 35-year mandate in Namibia based on the first results of a general election greatly questioned due to its serious technical problems – which forced it to be extended for days the vote– and that will be challenged in court by the country’s main opposition, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
The Namibian generals have ended up becoming a fight between the official candidate and vice president of SWAPO, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, and the opposition candidate of the IPC, Panduleni Itula. Now, with 99,686 votes counted in 15 of the 121 electoral districts, SWAPO comfortably leads the results in both the legislative elections (55.7% compared to 18.2% of the CPI) and the presidential elections: Nandi-Ndaitwah obtains 48.1 % of the 69,576 votes counted in 10 electoral districts by 28.9 percent of Itula.
If the SWAPO candidate obtains more than 50 percent of the votes in the presidential election, she will have won directly and a second round will not be necessary.
The elections began on Wednesday in the midst of organizational chaos that led the electoral authorities to extend the voting period until yesterday. For the opposition Itula, such an extension shows that the elections must be contested, even if his own party ends up surprising and wins.
“We will not accept the results of these elections, whether they indicate a victory for the CPI presidential candidate or a victory in the parliamentary seats,” Itula declared this Sunday at a press conference from the capital, Windhoek, “because it is a question of principles, the rule of law and the right of Namibians to elect their leaders through a credible process.
Itula detailed numerous complaints from IPC election agents, including reports of alleged malpractices at voting centers and questionable handling of the electoral process; irregularities that are “flagrant and undeniable”, as he made known during his appearance, reported by the portal ‘The Namibian’.
SWAPO has governed Namibia since the country’s independence in 1990 and five years ago showed that its popularity remained more or less intact thanks to the 65.5% of support it garnered in the 2019 elections, but it is now going through a crisis that involves high levels of unemployment, corruption and inequality.
To alleviate the situation, the country is on the verge of becoming a major oil and gas producer following recent offshore discoveries in the Orange basin by companies such as TotalEnergies SE and Shell Plc, making these elections a turning point. starting point for a new economic and political era in the African country.
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