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Election day expected: November 2024
20 January 2024 – In Namibia, although the elections are generally considered free and fair, they tend to follow the Mozambican template. President Hage Geingob can no longer stand for re-election, but his protege, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, is sure to win the vote (the date of which has not yet been set) under the aegis of SWAPO party, a former popular independence movement in the country.
Elections in Namibia determine who holds public political offices in the country. is a republic. It runs every five years for the position of the and seats in the , and every six years for the and the distribution of seats in local authorities. The is by the of Namibia's 14 regions.
The current direct elections determining political positions are the for president and National Assembly, and the for Regional Councils and local authorities.
Electoral system
[]Namibia elects on national level a - the - and a . The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The is in nature. Until 2014 the had 78 members of which 72 were elected by direct popular vote using the and a maximum of 6 non-voting members are appointed by the president. The members are elected for a five-year term. Since then the number of elected seats to the National Assembly was increased to 96 to allow for wider representation of the population, although the real reason behind it was the newly introduced gender equality system of the ruling party . This system would have pushed several male members out of parliament. The has 42 members, indirectly elected for a five-year term in triple-seat (regions). Namibia is a democratic but with the (SWAPO) in power.
are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. Upon the territory inherited a populace divided along ethnic groups, and political parties representing these ethnicities. While this is also true for SWAPO which was founded to represent the , the ruling party has garnered national support due to its role in the fight for independence. Opposition parties have had little success in national elections, and their representation in the lower house has been dwindling steadily.
Electronic voting
[]The was the first in Africa to use . The electronic system was also used in the and in the . However, the (EVMs) that Namibia purchased do not implement the (VVPAT). The ruled in 2020 that without a paper trail, usage of the EVMs in elections is unconstitutional. Starting with the the voting process thus uses paper ballots again.
Current Results
[]President
[]| Candidate | Party | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|---|
| 464,703 | 56.3 | ||
| Independent | 242,657 | 29.4 | |
| 43,959 | 5.3 | ||
| 22,542 | 2.7 | ||
| Apius Auchab | 22,115 | 2.7 | |
| 12,039 | 1.5 | ||
| 5,959 | 0.7 | ||
| 4,379 | 0.5 | ||
| 3,515 | 0.4 | ||
| 3,304 | 0.4 | ||
| Jan Mukwilongo | 1,026 | 0.1 | |
| Invalid/blank votes | 0 | – | |
| Total | 826,198 | 100 | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,358,468 | 60.8 | |
| Source: 2020-02-13 at the | |||
National Assembly
[]| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 536,861 | 65.45 | 63 | –14 | ||
| 136,576 | 16.65 | 16 | +11 | ||
| 38,956 | 4.75 | 4 | New | ||
| 16,066 | 1.96 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 14,664 | 1.79 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 14,644 | 1.79 | 2 | 0 | ||
| 14,546 | 1.77 | 2 | +1 | ||
| 13,580 | 1.66 | 2 | +2 | ||
| 8,953 | 1.09 | 1 | –2 | ||
| 5,841 | 0.71 | 1 | +1 | ||
| 5,330 | 0.65 | 1 | 0 | ||
| 4,645 | 0.57 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 4,559 | 0.56 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 3,212 | 0.39 | 0 | –2 | ||
| 1,785 | 0.22 | 0 | New | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 0 | – | – | – | |
| Total | 820,227 | 100 | 96 | – | |
| Registered voters/turnout | 1,358,468 | 60.4 | – | – | |
| Source: 2020-02-13 at the | |||||
Regional elections
[]There are 121 constituency councillors to be elected. In the the party affiliations of the elected councillors were:
| Party | Seats | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 112 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 2 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| Total | 121 | |
| Source: | ||
Local election
[]Local elections determine the population of the village, town, and city councils and have a direct influence on who will become mayor, as this position is elected among all councillors. Contrary to the regional elections, local elections in Namibia are determined by party, not by individual. There were 57 local authorities to be elected.
| Party | Seats | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 277 | ||
| 41 | ||
| 21 | ||
| 16 | ||
| 11 | ||
| 4 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| 1 | ||
| Total | 378 | |
| Source: | ||
History
[]Before Namibian independence the territory was known as . All elections until were , but even thereafter several parties representing the indigenous population, among them SWAPO, were excluded.
The first parliamentary elections were held in between . These elections were for the , which, upon independence in March 1990, became the . SWAPO won as expected, gaining 41 of the 72 seats, but not with the margin that was anticipated. Support for the opposition parties (DTA, 21 seats) and (UDF, 4 seats) was strong in the former including and . Since then, election results of the opposition parties have been dwindling steadily. For instance the DTA gained 15 seats in , 7 seats in , and 4 seats in . As of 2017 the state of the opposition has been described as "on the verge of collapsing".
In 2019 Hage Geingob won the presidential election and received a second term as president. His percentage of votes gained, however, dropped significantly from 87% in 2014 to 56% in 2019. While rural areas predominantly supported Geingob, many urban centres voted for the independent candidate, Panduleni Itula, who received 29% of the overall votes. No other candidate achieved a two-digit result. SWAPO, yet again, won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, but closely missed the threshold for a two-thirds majority, which it held since 1994. Consequently, opposition parties also gained seats, most prominently the PDM, which obtained 16 seats in the National Assembly. The PDM's 16.60% vote share is its best electoral performance since the .
- , African Elections Database
