Elections in Namibia

Elections in Namibia determine who holds public political offices in the country. Namibia is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic. It runs direct elections every five years for the position of the president and seats in the National Assembly, and every six years for the Regional Councils and the distribution of seats in local authorities. The National Council is elected indirectly by the constituency councillors of Namibia's 14 regions.

The current^[update] direct elections determining political positions are the 2019 Namibian general election for president and National Assembly, and the 2020 Namibian local and regional elections for Regional Councils and local authorities.

Latest election

President

Candidate		Party	Votes	%
	Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah	SWAPO	638,560	58.07
	Panduleni Itula	Independent Patriots for Change	284,106	25.84
	McHenry Venaani	Popular Democratic Movement	55,412	5.04
	Bernadus Swartbooi	Landless People's Movement (Namibia)	51,160	4.65
	Job Amupanda	Affirmative Repositioning	19,676	1.79
	Hendrik Gaobaeb	United Democratic Front (Namibia)	12,604	1.15
	Henk Mudge	Republican Party (Namibia)	8,988	0.82
	Evilastus Kaaronda	SWANU	7,991	0.73
	Ambrosius Kumbwa	All People's Party (Namibia)	5,197	0.47
	Epafras Mukwiilongo	Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters	3,978	0.36
	Festus Thomas	Body of Christ Party	3,641	0.33
	Mike Kavekotora	Rally for Democracy and Progress (Namibia)	2,974	0.27
	Erastus Shuumbwa	Action Democratic Movement Party (Namibia)	2,069	0.19
	Sakaria Likuwa	United Namibians Party	2,013	0.18
	Vaino Amuthenu	Congress of Democrats	1,213	0.11
Total			1,099,582	100.00

National Assembly

Party		Votes	%	Seats
	SWAPO	583,300	53.38	51
	Independent Patriots for Change	220,809	20.21	20
	Affirmative Repositioning	72,227	6.61	7
	Popular Democratic Movement	59,839	5.48	5
	Landless People's Movement (Namibia)	56,971	5.21	5
	United Democratic Front (Namibia)	16,828	1.54	1
	Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters	11,743	1.07	1
	SWANU	11,484	1.05	1
	Republican Party (Namibia)	10,942	1.00	1
	National Unity Democratic Organisation	10,687	0.98	1
	All People's Party (Namibia)	7,219	0.66	1
	National Democratic Party (Namibia)	6,647	0.61	1
	Body of Christ Party	5,763	0.53	1
	Rally for Democracy and Progress (Namibia)	3,308	0.30	0
	National Empowerment Fighting Corruption	3,216	0.29	0
	United Namibians Party	2,706	0.25	0
	Action Democratic Movement Party (Namibia)	2,286	0.21	0
	United People's Movement (Namibia)	2,143	0.20	0
	Congress of Democrats	1,800	0.16	0
	Christian Democratic Voice	1,452	0.13	0
	National Patriotic Front (Namibia)	1,315	0.12	0
Appointed members		0	0.00	8
Total		1,092,685	100.00	104

Electoral system

Namibia elects on national level a head of state - the president - and a legislature. The president is elected for a five-year term by the people. The Parliament is bicameral in nature. Until 2014 the National Assembly had 78 members of which 72 were elected by direct popular vote using the proportional representation 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,^[1] although the real reason behind it was the newly introduced gender equality system of the ruling party SWAPO. This system would have pushed several male members out of parliament.^[2] The National Council of Namibia has 42 members, indirectly elected for a five-year term in triple-seat constituencies (regions). Namibia is a democratic but one party dominant state with the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) in power.

Opposition parties are allowed, but are widely considered to have no real chance of gaining power. Upon independence of Namibia 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 Ovambo people, 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.^[1]

Electronic voting

The 2014 Namibian general election was the first in Africa to use electronic voting.^[3] The electronic system was also used in the 2015 Namibian local and regional elections and in the 2019 general election. However, the electronic voting machines (EVMs) that Namibia purchased do not implement the Voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT). The Supreme Court of Namibia ruled in 2020 that without a paper trail, usage of the EVMs in elections is unconstitutional. Starting with the 2020 Namibian local and regional elections the voting process thus uses paper ballots again.^[4]

Current Results

President

See also: President of Namibia

Candidate	Party	Votes	%
Hage Geingob	SWAPO	464,703	56.3
Panduleni Itula	Independent	242,657	29.4
McHenry Venaani	Popular Democratic Movement	43,959	5.3
Bernadus Swartbooi	Landless People's Movement	22,542	2.7
Apius Auchab	United Democratic Front	22,115	2.7
Esther Muinjangue	National Unity Democratic Organisation	12,039	1.5
Tangeni Iiyambo	SWANU	5,959	0.7
Henk Mudge	Republican Party	4,379	0.5
Mike Kavekotora	Rally for Democracy and Progress	3,515	0.4
Ignatius Shixwameni	All People's Party	3,304	0.4
Jan Mukwilongo	Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters	1,026	0.1
Invalid/blank votes		0	–
Total		826,198	100
Registered voters/turnout		1,358,468	60.8
Source: ECN Archived 2020-02-13 at the Wayback Machine

National Assembly

See also: National Assembly of Namibia

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	SWAPO	536,861	65.45	63	–14
	Popular Democratic Movement	136,576	16.65	16	+11
	Landless People's Movement	38,956	4.75	4	New
	National Unity Democratic Organisation	16,066	1.96	2	0
	All People's Party	14,664	1.79	2	0
	United Democratic Front	14,644	1.79	2	0
	Republican Party	14,546	1.77	2	+1
	Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters	13,580	1.66	2	+2
	Rally for Democracy and Progress	8,953	1.09	1	–2
	Christian Democratic Voice	5,841	0.71	1	+1
	SWANU	5,330	0.65	1	0
	Congress of Democrats	4,645	0.57	0	0
	National Democratic Party	4,559	0.56	0	0
	Workers Revolutionary Party	3,212	0.39	0	–2
	National Patriotic Front	1,785	0.22	0	New
Invalid/blank votes		0	–	–	–
Total		820,227	100	96	–
Registered voters/turnout		1,358,468	60.4	–	–
Source: ECN Archived 2020-02-13 at the Wayback Machine

Regional elections

There are 121 constituency councillors to be elected. In the 2015 Namibian local and regional elections the party affiliations of the elected councillors were:

Party	Seats	Change
South West Africa People's Organization	112
National Unity Democratic Organisation	4
Popular Democratic Movement	2
United Democratic Front	1
United People's Movement	1
Independent politicians	1
Total	121
Source:[5]

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
South West Africa People's Organization	277
Popular Democratic Movement	41
United Democratic Front	21
Rally for Democracy and Progress	16
National Unity Democratic Organisation	11
All People's Party	4
United People's Movement	3
Civic Association of Henties Bay	1
KRA	1
Swakopmund Residents Association	1
Congress of Democrats	1
Rundu Concerned Citizens Association	1
Total	378
Source:[6]

History

Before Namibian independence the territory was known as South West Africa. All elections until 1978 were only for Whites,^[7] but even thereafter several parties representing the indigenous population, among them SWAPO, were excluded.^[8]

The first parliamentary elections were held in Namibia between 7 and 11 November 1989. These elections were for the Constituent Assembly of Namibia, which, upon independence in March 1990, became the National Assembly of Namibia. SWAPO won as expected, gaining 41 of the 72 seats, but not with the margin that was anticipated. Support for the opposition parties Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA, 21 seats) and United Democratic Front (UDF, 4 seats) was strong in the former bantustans including Hereroland and Damaraland.^[9] Since then, election results of the opposition parties have been dwindling steadily. For instance the DTA gained 15 seats in 1994, 7 seats in 1999, and 4 seats in 2004. As of 2017^[update] the state of the opposition has been described as "on the verge of collapsing".^[1]

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.^[10] The PDM's 16.60% vote share is its best electoral performance since the 1994 election.

See also

• Electoral calendar
• Electoral system