Namibia votes with ruling party facing its toughest race yet

Namibia's vice president was among the first to vote in elections Wednesday that could see her become the desert nation's first woman leader, even as her ruling SWAPO party faces the strongest challenge yet to its 34-year grip on power.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a 72-year-old veteran of the South West Africa People's Organisation, cast her ballot in the capital Windhoek as polls opened with long queues outside many polling stations in the sparsely populated country.

She urged the roughly 1.5 million registered voters to get to the polls before they close at 9:00 pm (1900 GMT).

The vote "will have an impact for the next five years in your life and in the life of every Namibian and any person who's visiting this country," said the candidate popularly known as NNN.

SWAPO has governed the mineral-rich country since independence in 1990 but, amid complaints about high unemployment and enduring inequalities, Nandi-Ndaitwah could be forced into an unprecedented second-round if she fails to garner at least half the vote.

One of her main challengers is Panduleni Itula, 67, a former dentist and lawyer who founded the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party in 2020 after leaving SWAPO.

Itula took 29 percent of votes in the 2019 elections, losing to SWAPO leader Hage Geingob with 56 percent. It was a remarkable performance considering Geingob, who died in February, had won almost 87 percent five years earlier.

Itula told reporters at a Windhoek polling station that he was optimistic his four-year-old party could "unseat the revolutionary movement".

"We will all march from there and to a new dawn and a new era of how we conduct our public affairs in this country," he said.

- Second round? -

Waiting in the early morning sun to cast her ballot, Frieda Fillipus, 31, said she wanted to see a woman run the country.

"The future is female," said Fillipus, who works in the key mining sector.

"The outcome will be tight," said self-employed Hendry Amupanda, 32, who had been queuing since 9:00 pm the night before.

"I want the country to get better and people to get jobs," said Amupanda, wearing slippers and equipped with a chair, blanket and snacks.

For the first time in the southern African nation's recent history, a second round is "a somewhat realistic option", said Henning Melber, of the Nordic Africa Institute at the University of Uppsala.

A run-off would take place within 60 days of the announcement of the first-round results due on Saturday.

Namibia is a major uranium and diamond exporter but not all of its nearly three million people have benefitted from that wealth.

"There's a lot of mining activity that goes on in the country, but it doesn't really translate into improved infrastructure, job opportunities," said independent political analyst Marisa Lourenco, based in Johannesburg.

"That's where a lot of the frustration is coming from, (especially) the youth," she added.

Unemployment among 15- to 34-year-olds is estimated at 46 percent, according to the latest figures from 2018. This is almost triple the national average.

- 'Immediate needs' -

SWAPO is lauded for leading Namibia to independence from white-ruled South Africa in 1990 but its current leaders are nervous after other liberation-era movements in the region have lost favour with new generations.

In the past six months, South Africa's African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority and the Botswana Democratic Party was ousted after almost six decades in power.

In Mozambique, though the ruling Frelimo won recent elections, civil society and opposition groups have protested for weeks claiming fraud and demanding change.

"Young people have been feeling the brunt of the current economic downturn in a lot of African countries," said Nic Cheeseman, a professor specialised in African politics at the University of Birmingham.

"It's not just that they're young and it's not just that they don't remember, it's also that they really feel the pinch of the economic crisis."

"The challenges affecting Namibia, similar to the challenges affecting other African countries, are shifting the political landscape drastically," said Tendai Mbanje, an election expert at the Johannesburg-based African Centre for Governance.

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