Windhoek (Agenzia Fides) - Outgoing Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won the presidential election in Namibia on November 27 (see Fides, 27/11/2024). The candidate of SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization), which has governed the country since independence in 1990, received 58.1% of the vote, defeating her main challenger Panduleni Itula, candidate of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), who received 25.8% of the vote. Observers from the Inter-Regional Meeting of the Bishops of Southern Africa (IMBISA), (which brings together the bishops of Angola, Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho, Mozambique, Namibia, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa and Zimbabwe - ed.) note that the elections took place in a calm and peaceful atmosphere, helped by "restrictions on the sale of alcohol during public holidays and weekends" which "helped maintain order".
"The approximately one and a half million voters were able to vote anywhere in the country and not just in the district where they had registered," the IMBISA monitoring team said in a statement, but recalled that there were some organizational difficulties that forced them to "extend the vote to 30 November in some polling stations due to logistical issues like ballot shortages and technical problems with voter verification tablets." "There were long queues, with some voters having to wait up to 12 hours," the statement said. "The logistical problems and delays provoked strong criticism from political parties and voters, with the opposition questioning the legitimacy of the election results". "The IMBISA Secretariat recommends a more efficient organization for future elections, including improvements in logistics and electronic systems, to ensure fairness and avoid any suspicion, questions about impartiality and possible irregularities in the electoral process," the statement concludes (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides, 6/12/2024)