AFPIf issues work out as Namibia’s long-time governing get together hopes, the nation will probably be electing its first feminine head of state this week.
However a temper of disillusionment with liberation actions in southern Africa, coupled with the anti-incumbency feeling in lots of components of the world, could pose a risk to what could be an historic achievement.
Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, is the flag-bearer for Swapo, which has led the nation since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan is presently Africa’s solely feminine president, so Nandi-Ndaitwah could be becoming a member of an unique membership if she is victorious.
Her get together, completely dominant for 3 many years, noticed a big drop in its assist within the final common election. It goes into Wednesday’s vote amid an unemployment price of 19% – virtually the identical because it was 30 years in the past – troubled authorities funds, questions on corruption and excessive ranges of inequality.
Standing in Nandi-Ndaitwah’s manner is her predominant challenger among the many 14 different candidates – Panduleni Itula of the Impartial Patriots for Change (IPC) get together.
She can be up towards a conventional and male-dominated political tradition within the nation.
However she is a trusted chief of this sparsely populated and peaceable nation having served in excessive authorities workplace for 1 / 4 of a century.
“I’ve all the time believed in teamwork, that’s what made me obtain what I’ve achieved,” she has mentioned.
Recognized for her hands-on and pragmatic model of management, the vice-president can be fiercely loyal to the get together, which she joined as an adolescent.
At 14 she grew to become a part of the motion resisting rule from South Africa, which had ruled the nation – then referred to as South West Africa – for the reason that finish of World Warfare One and later launched the racist system of apartheid.
AFPShe was recognised for her tenacity and organisational expertise as chief of Swapo’s Youth League, which grew to become a stepping stone to her political profession, which has included ministerial roles in international affairs, tourism, baby welfare and data.
She has garnered a wealth of data and expertise that might stand her in good stead ought to she get into the driving seat.
“She appears so sensible and candy and sort, even in the way in which she tries to say the whole lot in such a manner that even like me will perceive,” Laimi, a possible voter, advised the BBC within the capital, Windhoek.
“Itula is sort of a new piece of jewelry together with his glasses, his good go well with and his assured stroll, however possibly he blinds you together with his shine,” mentioned her good friend Maria.
Each are younger adults who’ve been unable to seek out jobs.
A skilled dentist, Itula, 67, was himself as soon as a Swapo stalwart however was expelled from the get together in 2020 after runnig as an impartial candidate towards President Hage Geingob within the 2019 ballot.
He had additionally been a youth chief and spent a while in jail earlier than going into exile within the UK within the early Nineteen Eighties. He returned to Namibia in 2013.
Six years later, he charismatically got here crashing into the entrance row of Namibian politics, difficult Geingob within the presidential election after saying the Swapo course of for selecting its candidate was flawed.
Itula’s intervention in that election led to Swapo getting its lowest ever share – 56% – within the presidential election and in addition shedding its two-thirds majority in parliament.
As somebody who had knowledgeable life outdoors politics, he has an enchantment to the 50% of the 1.5 million voters who’re below the age of 35, lots of whom need financial change, a job or a measurable enhance to their incomes.
His daring and at occasions brash model, rejecting the extra staid political rhetoric of Nandi-Ndaitwah, has seen him win assist amongst enterprise folks and the rising city intelligentsia.
However whereas Itula is fast off the mark and eloquent, the vice-president chooses her phrases properly, and speaks slowly and intentionally.
AFPNandi-Ndaitwah seeks concord and teamwork, emphasising group, ardour and care, and as such, reaches proper all the way down to the grass roots.
And because the first girl with an opportunity of turning into the nation’s president, she carries the hope of some ladies who need a change from the patriarchal society.
Nonetheless, Nandi-Ndaitwah represents the “tried and trusted” old fashioned of Namibia’s liberation wrestle, whereas Itula represents the attainable “wind of change” in a political panorama needing a facelift.
In keeping with political analyst Henning Melber, the shut rivalry between the 2 main candidates might imply that the presidential election will go into an unprecedented second spherical run-off, which is required if no-one will get greater than half of the votes solid.
In neighbouring South Africa, the African Nationwide Congress, in energy since 1994, was pressured right into a coalition following Might’s common election. Whereas in Botswana – simply to the east – the Botswana Democratic Get together, dominant for practically six many years, crashed to a humiliating defeat on the finish of final month.
Swapo needs to keep away from the identical destiny.
The winner on Wednesday would be the candidate who may be most trusted on points equivalent to youth unemployment, corruption, well being care, schooling and infrastructure enchancment, whereas additionally with the ability to bolster the economic system.
This might want to occur with out having to unload the nation’s huge pure assets to international bidders – equivalent to off-shore fuel in addition to lithium and different important metals.
Itula’s IPC was not a part of the elections in 2019, however has carried out strongly in native elections since then and has the looks of a reputable political different. It has received reward for the way in which it has run some native governments.
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s largest asset could also be that she is, as Namibian diplomat Tuliameni Kalomoh as soon as said, seen as “incorruptible, each morally and materially”.
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