Opinion | Namibia's Upcoming Elections: A Youth Perspective

Namibia will go to the polls in November 2024 to cast their votes to elect the next president and parliament for the nation. I am part and parcel of the youth who are oblivious to whom I will vote for, particularly for the highly regarded position of "the president." 

Nevertheless, I do not ignore the fraction of youth who, in their own right, have zero interest in how the 2024 elections will unfold, much less how it will affect their future.  

However, political party campaigns are up and running; rallies big and small, under tents and others under trees, are set—political party leaders and their cohorts, making promises to Namibians, again. 

Some parties have and are still travelling around the country, some deep into uncharted forests, at farms and villages, only to convince many poverty-stricken and under-educated populace to vote for them. 

People in these areas are usually forgotten and abandoned after political parties win and start to heap the benefits and manage resources.  

Anyway, the tension is high, the blood is boiling, and the drums are rolling. Political analysts and commentators are gnashing their teeth and biting their nails off, inquisitive about who will reign supreme as Namibia's next president. 

The eminent question is, ‘Will it be a man or a woman?’ This opinionated blog post does not endorse any candidate or intend to slam anyone; it only points out observations accompanied by relevant facts. 

As we all know, Namibia is a multiparty democracy but for the past years been run like a one-party dominant state. The South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) has been in power for the last 34 years since independence. 

Background

In November 2022, the SWAPO Party held its Ordinary Congress, where the party selected Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as the party's vice president. 

Founding president Sam Nujoma, during his speech at the SWAPO Extra-Ordinary Central Committee meeting on 9 March 2024 in Windhoek, made it clear that the selection made it possible for Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is also the current Vice President of Namibia, to be a presidential candidate in the 2024 elections. 

This selection also made her the first female presidential candidate in Namibia. 

The late President of Namibia, Hage Gottfried Geingob, was an advocate for gender parity; hence, SWAPO introduced zebra-style gender representation in the country's Parliament. 

Sam Nujoma said, "Everybody, however, was looking forward to who would emerge as the vice president of SWAPO because that person would be our candidate in the 2024 Presidential and National Assembly elections, scheduled for November." 

As a result, Nandi-Ndaitwah overwhelmingly won the contest for the vice president position with 491 votes in 2022.  This indicates that the transition at the state level was seamless and peaceful; within less than eight hours of the death of the late President Geingob, the country had a new president and vice president, Nangolo Mbumba and Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. 

He added, "However, there are those calling for an Extraordinary Congress, arguing that the Ordinary Congress in 2022 did not have the mandate to elect a presidential candidate. Per the Constitution, at the party level, the president’s position must be filled within a specific timeframe," Nujoma continued. 

Nujoma highlighted that it was clear from the 2022 Ordinary Congress that Nandi-Ndaitwah would be the SWAPO Party presidential candidate in the November 2024 elections. SWAPO is set to hold an extraordinary congress to elect a SWAPO president on April 19, 2025.  

Namibia has never had a female president, and by the look of things, this may be the best time. According to records, Nandi-Ndaitwah is among the few politicians with a clean political background, particularly no corruption. She was a minister of international relations and corporations and may have the best diplomacy skills and experience the country needs.  

We have seen how foreign nations have been flooding in recently to strengthen relations with Namibia. 

Is this business as usual, or should we worry?

 
We need to defend oil and gas, including green hydrogen, from foreign crooks. Independent Patriots for Change president Panduleni Itula, who is among the presidential candidates for the 2024 elections, recently made headlines for receiving international support for his presidential campaign. 

SWAPO was threatened by Itula's move. 

Speaking at the opening session of the central committee of SWAPO on 11 April 2024, Nandi-Ndaitwah raised the question,  "If you do not trust Namibians to run your campaign, how can you trust them to run the country with you?" 

IPC was established on 2 August 2020, before the general elections of November 2020, and currently does not hold seats in the parliament. 

The Electoral Act of Namibia, amended in 2014 under Sacky Shangala, indicates that political parties that do not have seats in parliament do not receive financial assistance from the Electoral Commission of Namibia. 

Although received from various sources, party funding helps political parties run campaigns and other routine activities. 

The National Democratic President, Martin Lukato Lukato, boasts that he has increased his political party's membership without financial resources. 

His promise, among other things, is to restore Namibia to a "multiparty state."

In essence, he wants to amend strenuous laws and revive Namibia's government. Among the presidential candidates is Ally Angula, the former finance ministry deputy executive director, who will stand as an independent candidate. She claims she was told by God to run for the presidency.