Namibia has its first woman president. Namibians say it won't mean much for women

Namibia’s presidential and National Assembly elections this year have been historic on many fronts. They were the country’s most controversial elections, with accusations of foreign interference and election rigging at the forefront; while the country’s first female president was elected.

The South West Africa People’s Organisation’s (Swapo’s) Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was announced as the president-elect on Tuesday night, with 57.69% of the vote.

The announcement was made at the Electoral Commission of Namibia’s (ECN’s) headquarters in Windhoek, but many parties were absent — contributing to a sombre mood.

Multiple parties, including the incoming official opposition party, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), and the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) boycotted the announcement, as they do not recognise the election’s results.

In a statement issued moments before the announcement, the IPC reaffirmed its decision to challenge the election results in the courts.

“Thousands of ballots remain locked away, their fate unknown, while polling agents across the country await orders from their superiors regarding ballots under their care to be counted and their results announced.

“Polling stations, unlawfully designated as voting centres, continue processing votes under a shroud of illegitimacy,” said the IPC.

Swapo might have kept the presidency, but it fell short in the National Assembly ballot — securing only 51 seats. This continued the party’s gradual decline in the National Assembly — it won 77 seats in 2014 and 63 seats in 2019 out of 96.

While Nandi-Ndaitwah’s election is a landmark move for gender representation, Namibia is marred by high rates of sexual abuse and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV). The United Nations Population Fund estimates that nearly a third of all women in Namibia have experienced physical violence from an intimate partner at some point in their lives.

A shallow victory for women

The award-winning intersectional activist Ndiilokelwa Nthengwe said Nandi-Ndaitwah’s appointment was “historic, but immaterial”. According to Nthengwe, Nandi-Ndaitwah does not have a track record that indicates that women in Namibia will benefit greatly from her presidency.

“For the Swapo party it’s historic, because they have a party leader that was set to become the first female president, but for the country not so much,” said Nthengwe.

They said Namibia was “in a state of delusion, in which we believe that an elderly woman can solve our social issues”. Nthengwe noted that Namibia remained patriarchal, because “we still associate women with social issues, but men with politics. We cannot just say that because she is the first female president, our issues around SGBV and femicide will be resolved.”

First-time voter Ester Eino echoed this sentiment. Eino pointed out that Swapo had no prominent focus on women’s rights during its campaign, other than having a female candidate.

“Swapo has not really identified anything for women, so we don’t know where we stand when it comes to issues like abortion rights and rights to maternity care,” said Eino.

The election was popular with young voters, although the data have not yet been made available by the ECN.

Eino said young voters, specifically members of Generation Z, came out in droves because this was the first time they had an opportunity to make their voices heard.

Young people make up a considerable chunk of Namibia’s population — 71.1% are under the age of 35.

Gwen Lister, a veteran journalist and founder of The Namibian — one of the first newspapers in Namibia to openly criticise the apartheid regime — said Nandi-Ndaitwah’s appointment was a notable moment in Namibia’s history.

“The election of a woman president, in the person of Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah is undoubtedly historic, coming as it will on the 35th anniversary of Namibian independence in 2025, even though the election process itself has been marred by controversy,” said Lister.

Lister does, however, believe that Nandi-Ndaitwah will face daunting challenges.

“Not least of all, the need to tackle the most burning issue of spiralling unemployment, especially among an increasingly frustrated youth population, rising levels of corruption and … being a woman herself, dealing with the scourge of GBV,” said Lister.

Political reshuffle

Namibia’s National Assembly has also seen a significant reshuffle, if the IPC’s lawsuit does not render this election null and void.

Two newly registered parties have taken the lead as the opposition in the country’s parliament, with the IPC being the largest. Panduleni Itula’s party, which was established in 2020 after he ran as an independent candidate in the 2019 elections, secured 20.21% of the vote (20 seats) — the most of any newly established party in the country’s history since independence.

Graham Hopwood, executive director at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said that although Swapo’s popularity was declining, the party’s regression was not as precipitous as in other countries in the region.

Read more: Swapo could be the next former liberation movement to lose its grip on power.

“However, if this trend continues they will lose their majority in 2029. They would need to take a new approach on a lot of issues like corruption and service delivery if they want to survive in the long term,” said Hopwood.

He said Swapo’s leadership would have to change their mindset to accomplish this, but at present there were no signs of this happening.

Incoming legal challenges

Many of the parties — the exact number is not yet known — are gearing up to challenge the elections in the courts. The IPC has in the past taken the ECN to court over the use of electronic voting machines (EVMs) without a paper trail. The court ruled that the EVMs were indeed unlawful, but it did not nullify the election.

Read more: Opposition parties plan to reject outcome of Namibia’s elections and head to court.

The IPC’s general national secretary, Christine Esperanza Aochamus, said that despite the IPC’s relatively strong performance in the polls, “nothing has changed”.

The IPC has not yet released the details of its legal challenge, other than stating: “The IPC will not recognise or accept the outcome of this deeply flawed process. Whether the results declare a win, a runoff, or a loss, we will seek to nullify this election in the courts.”

The LPM’s spokesperson, Lifalaza Simataa, said the party did not recognise the elections as free and fair and chose to boycott the announcement, while also exploring avenues to challenge the election.

The Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) released a statement on 4 December, a day after the announcement of the election’s results, saying the party condemned the elections, “which we believe were orchestrated to favour Swapo in collaboration with Zanu-PF”.

The NEFF said it would investigate the conduct of the ECN. This investigation includes the NEFF demanding an independent audit of the election process and results; consulting with “relevant local and international bodies” to highlight the elections’ supposed irregularities; and possible legal action. DM