Namibia’s ruling party on track to retain power, early election results show

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Namibia’s ruling party on track to retain power, early election results show

7:00 CAT | 02 Dec 2024

FILE - Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah [File photo: Simon Mania/AFP]

Early results from Namibia’s elections show the ruling party is on track to maintain its almost 35-year grip on power in the sparsely populated southwest African nation.

With 99,686 votes counted from 15 of the 121 constituencies, the South West African Peoples Organisation had 55.7% backing and the Independent Patriots for Change 18.2%, the electoral commission said on Sunday. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, Swapo’s candidate in the presidential race, secured 48.1% of the 69,576 votes tallied in 10 constituencies, while IPC founder Panduleni Itula 28.9%.

Swapo has ruled Namibia since independence in 1990 and won 65.5% support in 2019 elections, but faces a potential backlash over high levels of unemployment, graft and inequality. The country is poised to become a major oil and gas producer following recent offshore discoveries in the Orange Basin by companies including TotalEnergies SE and Shell Plc, raising the stakes in this year’s vote.

Some 1.45 million people registered to cast ballots last week. A presidential contender needs to win more than half of the vote to avoid a runoff.

Unofficial partial results posted on the privately owned Namvotes24 website showed Swapo garnering 56.3% of 356,322 votes in the parliamentary election to the IPC’s 18.8%. Nandi-Ndaitwah led the presidential race, winning 62% of 342,138 votes tallied so far, while Itula had 22.7%, it said.

Source: Bloomberg