New Namibian President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, has been serving as vice-president since February
Windhoek, December 4– Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, from the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), has been elected Namibia’s first female president after last week’s disputed election.
The electoral commission said she had won more than 57% of vote, with her closest rival Panduleni Itula, getting 26%.
Following logistical problems and a three-day extension to polling in some parts of the country, Itula said the electoral process was “deeply flawed”.
His Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party said it would challenge the results in court.
Most opposition parties boycotted the results announcement on Tuesday evening in the capital, Windhoek, the Namibian newspaper reports.
Windhoek is reported to be calm on Wednesday, with neither celebrations nor protests and people carrying on with their normal lives.
After the announcement of her victory, Nandi Ndaitwah said: “The Namibian nation has voted for peace and stability.”
Swapo has been in power in the large but sparsely populated southern African country since independence in 1990.
A party stalwart, Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is currently the vice-president, is a trusted leader having served in high government office for a quarter of a century.
South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa extended his congratulations to Nandi-Ndaitwah on X on Wednesday.
“Your election as fifth President of the Republic and the first woman in our region to hold this high office is a testament to democracy and its ability to transform our societies,” his statement read.
Once sworn in, she will join an exclusive club as at the moment Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan is Africa’s only female president.
In the parliamentary elections held at the same time, Swapo narrowly held on to its majority, winning 51 of the 96 elected seats – a loss of 12. The IPC won 20 seats, and will be the official opposition.
The IPC said it would “pursue justice through the courts” and has encouraged people who felt that they had been unable to vote because of mismanagement by the electoral commission to go to the police to make a statement.
Claus Goldbeck, from the IPC, said voting was an “organisational mess”.
Some people were sent home after standing in line for 14 hours because there weren’t enough ballot papers, and scanners broke down at numerous polling stations.
“The Electoral Commission of Namibia [ECN] had four years to fix things,” he said.
The ECN admitted to failures in the organisation of the votes and ballot shortages. But the chairperson, Elsie Nghikembua, denied any allegations of fraud.
“I urge all Namibians to embrace the results with the spirit of unity, diversity, understanding and reconciliation,” she said.
Swapo led the struggle for nationhood against apartheid South Africa. Ahead of last Wednesday’s general election there had been some speculation that it would suffer the fate of other liberation parties in the region.
Nandi-Ndaitwah was born in 1952, in the northern village of Onamutai. She was the ninth of 13 children and her father was an Anglican clergyman.
At the time, Namibia was known as South West Africa and its people were under occupation from South Africa.
Nandi-Ndaitwah joined Swapo, then a liberation movement resisting South Africa’s white-minority rule, when she was only 14.
A passionate activist, Nandi-Ndaitwah became a leader of Swapo’s Youth League.
The role set her up for a successful political career, but at the time Nandi-Ndaitwah was simply interested in freeing South West Africa.
“Politics came in just because of the circumstances. I should have become maybe a scientist,” she said in an interview this year.
While still a high school student, Nandi-Ndaitwah was arrested and detained during a crackdown on Swapo activists.
As a result of this persecution, she decided she could not stay in the country and joined several other Swapo members in exile.
She continued to organise with the movement while in Zambia and Tanzania, before moving to the UK to undertake an International Relations degree.
Then in 1988 – 14 years after Nandi-Ndaitwah fled her country – South Africa finally agreed to Namibian independence.
Nandi-Ndaitwah returned home and subsequently joined the post-independence, Swapo-run government.
In the years since, she has held a variety of posts, including ministerial roles in foreign affairs, tourism, child welfare and information.
Nandi-Ndaitwah became known as an advocate for women’s rights. In one of her key achievements, she pushed the Combating of Domestic Violence Act through the National Assembly in 2002.
According to Namibian media, Nandi-Ndaitwah criticised her male colleagues for trying to ridicule the draft law, sternly reminding them that the Swapo constitution condemns sexism.
She continued to rise despite Namibia’s traditional and male-dominated political culture, and in February this year she became vice-president.
She suceeded Nangolo Mbumba, who stepped up after the death of then-President Hage Geingob.
In her personal life, Nandi-Ndaitwah is married to Epaphras Denga Ndaitwah, the former chief of Namibia’s defence forces. The couple has three sons.
Throughout her career, Nandi-Ndaitwah has displayed a hands-on, pragmatic style of leadership.
She once declared in a speech: “I am an implementer, not a storyteller.”
