Namibia faces election chaos as voting surges after ‘irregularities’ | Election News

An opposition party seeking to end decades of Swapo rule is urging voters to continue casting their ballots.

Violence is intensifying in Namibia after the controversial extension of the weekend’s presidential and parliamentary elections due to “irregularities” that delayed voting.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) announced on Friday that polling stations, which were supposed to be closed two days ago, will remain open until Saturday night, citing “systems” failures, including a shortage of ballot papers and overheating of the tablets used to register voters. , which left them standing in line for hours.

The opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), which hopes to end 34 years of rule by the South West Africa People’s Organization (Swapo), protested the new extension but urged voters to vote.

“Sadly, there have been a lot of irregularities,” said Panduleni Itula who is running for the IPC presidency. But, he added, “there is no alternative but for the citizens to do what is proposed by the [ECN] at its end”.

She is up against Swapo’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, currently the vice president, who will become the mineral-rich country’s first female leader if she wins.

Ningombe Shitaleni, a registered voter who was waiting in line at the Okandjengedi public station in northern Namibia, said on Friday that he came back every day to vote, but nothing.

“It’s like you’re a crazy person,” she said.

The frustration of youth

Namibia is a former German colony that came under the control of South Africa after World War I, the majority of which were black and later followed the policies of apartheid.

Swapo has been at the forefront of the fight for the country’s independence and has dominated politics since the country gained independence in 1990.

But Nandi-Ndaitwah’s bid for the presidency is facing consoling youth frustrated by the lack of opportunities. The World Bank rates Namibia as a high-income country, but plagued by high inequality.

Observers wonder if Swapo may face the same fate as other groups in South Africa who freed their countries from colonial or white minority rule, but were rejected by voters this year.

Namibia’s electoral troubles come as Mozambique has been rocked by violent riots after the long-ruling Frelimo party was declared victorious in the October election, prompting allegations of vote rigging and further violent protests against the party.