Here Are The Main Candidates In Namibia's Presidential Election
Namibians are set to vote for a new president and parliament on November 27, following the death of President Hage Geingob, who was temporarily replaced by his deputy, Nangolo Mbumba.
The election could mark a historic shift in Namibia’s political landscape if the ruling SWAPO party, in power since independence in 1990, loses control of the presidency or parliament for the first time.
The president is directly elected by voters and must secure more than 50 per cent of the vote to win.
Support for SWAPO has declined significantly, from 87 percent in the 2014 presidential election to 56 percent in 2019.
Reuters has profiled the main candidates running for president below:
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah
Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, is not only the vice president of SWAPO but also the party’s first female presidential candidate.
She joined SWAPO in the 1960s during the party’s fight for Namibia’s independence from apartheid South Africa.
After going into exile with many other party leaders, she served as SWAPO’s representative in central and eastern Africa.
Following her studies in diplomacy in England, Nandi-Ndaitwah returned to Namibia and has held several senior roles in both SWAPO and the government.
These include serving as a minister in the portfolios of international relations, environment, and women’s affairs and child welfare.
Panduleni Itula
Panduleni Itula, a 67-year-old politician, secured 29% of the presidential vote as an independent candidate in 2019, marking the best performance by any challenger against SWAPO.
Since then, he has founded a new political party, the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), which advocates for grassroots participatory democracy and anti-corruption. The IPC also plans to contest parliamentary seats.
Itula was a SWAPO youth leader during the fight for independence and was imprisoned by the apartheid regime.
After his release, he moved to England, where he studied and worked as a dentist for over three decades before returning to Namibia in 2013.
McHenry Venaani
McHenry Venaani is the leader of Namibia’s largest opposition party in parliament, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), which holds 16 out of 96 elected seats.
Venaani, 47, studied law and became the country’s youngest member of parliament in 2003.
Despite the PDM strengthening its parliamentary presence in the 2019 election, Venaani came a distant third in the presidential race with only 5% of votes.
Bernadus Swartbooi
Bernadus Swartbooi, 47, is the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), a progressive party advocating for land redistribution and restorative justice.
Swartbooi founded the LPM in 2017 after losing his job as deputy minister of land reform and leaving SWAPO.
LPM has four seats in parliament. Swartbooi won 3% of votes in the 2019 presidential election.
Job Amupanda
Job Amupanda, 37, is a former SWAPO youth leader who fell out with the party and founded a leftist political movement called Affirmative Repositioning in 2014.
Like the LPM, the party focuses on land reform and redistribution of foreign-owned land.
Amupanda served as mayor of the capital, Windhoek, in 2021. He is also an associate professor of political science at the University of Namibia.
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