Namibians queue to cast their votes in presidential elections in Windhoek, Namibia, November 27, 2024
NAMIBIANS were still voting today, hours after polls had been scheduled to close in a presidential and parliamentary election.
Logistical issues left crowds waiting to vote although polls were scheduled to close on Wednesday evening.
Although some voters had still to cast their vote, tellers had begun the count at some polling stations with early results initially expected by Saturday, according to the electoral authorities.
As complaints from political parties and voters began to pour in over the long queues at polling stations, the Electoral Commission of Namibia said it was extending voting hours.
Some voters said they had been queuing for around 12 hours, blaming technical problems, including issues with voter identification tablets and insufficient ballot papers.
Reagan Cooper, a farmer waiting to vote while outside the town hall in the capital Windhoek, said: “The voters have turned out, but the electoral commission has failed us.”
The vote could elect Namibia’s first woman leader, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) candidate and current vice-president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah.
After voting at an elementary school in Windhoek, Ms Nandi-Ndaitwah told reporters that key Swapo’s key priorities were to fight poverty, attract more foreign investment to a country with vast diamond and uranium resources and tackle high levels of youth unemployment.
The unemployment rate among young people and graduates runs at about 20 per cent.
She said: “There should be a balance to make sure that the Namibian people, who are the owners of these resources, benefit from them.”
But Swapo, which has governed the southern African country and held the presidency for 34 years since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990, faces growing frustration caused by the struggling economy of the resource-rich nation.
The leader of the main opposition party Independent Patriots for Change Panduleni Itula said on Wednesday that he was optimistic he could “unseat the revolutionary movement.”
Results from the election are expected by the weekend.
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