In early results released on Tuesday, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the candidate for Namibia’s ruling SWAPO party, is leading the presidential election, despite technical problems that extended voting for three days.
Results from the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) showed that, as of 10.30am ()830 GMT) on Tuesday, Nandi-Ndaitwah is leading in the presidential race, with a comfortable margin of 54.8 percent of the ballots cast against 28.1 percent for her main rival, Panduleni Itula of the opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC).
With counting having been completed so far in 79 of the 121 constituencies, Bernardus Swartbooi of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) stood third with 6.4 percent of the votes, followed by McHenry Venaani of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) with 4.1 percent and Job Amupanda of the Affirmative Repositioning (AR) with 1.8 percent.
Nandi-Ndaitwah will become Namibia’s first female president if the results continue on the current trajectory.
SWAPO also leads in the National Assembly race with 53.1 percent of the vote, followed by IPC at 19.3 percent, LPM at 6.4 percent, AR at 6.3 percent and PDM with 5 percent.
The election has been marred by allegations from opposition parties, who have rejected the results and claimed that the extension of the voting period was illegal.
Final results are due later this week, with opposition parties indicating they may challenge the election’s validity in court.
Problems during the election included a shortage of ballot papers, prompting election authorities to keep some polling stations open until Saturday.
JN/APA