‘We are not America’: Swapo fields Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, hoping she becomes Africa’s second serving female president
As Namibians visited the polling stations across the southern African nation on Wednesday, the country's South West Africa People's Organisation's (Swapo) — which has been in power for 34 years — has remained confident of extending its grip on the highest office.
Namibia is a vast country, one of the world’s biggest producers of diamonds, but with a local population of just three million people — making it one of the most-sparsely populated countries in the world.
Swapo has governed Namibia since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
As the winds of change continue to sweep across African politics, Namibia's current Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, popularly referred to as NNN, a veteran of Swapo is the former liberation movement’s presidential candidate.
She is shouldering the responsibility of fending off the 14 other candidates – chief among them being Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party.
Itula, 67, is a former dentist and lawyer who founded the Independent Patriots for Change party in 2020.
On Wednesday morning, Swapo deputy secretary-general Uahekua Herunga told broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that that his party was “totally confident” of retaining power in Namibia.
“We are very much excited as a party, we are totally confident that we will retain our lead to lead this nation. The people of Namibia have the total trust in the Swapo party. Within two days the results will be out and we will be victorious. We are very much happy,” said Herunga.
“The people here are very calm, they are very excited and we do not expect anything funny or very strange.”
Herunga rubbishes suggestions that the defeat of Kamala Harris in the United States of America does not augur well for Swapo’s first woman presidential candidate.
“First of all, the situation between Namibia and USA is totally different. We have a total political background which is not similar to that one of USA, so people of Namibia are very much ready,” he said.
“Remember the Swapo party has been the ruling party of this country and the female presidential candidate has been overwhelmingly elected at the congress as the successor of our late president Dr Hage Geingob,” Herunga said.
“We have been everywhere, we have received massive support from all 14 regions of the country. We have no reason whatsoever for us to be compared to the political situation in USA.”
On Wednesday morning, an upbeat Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, was among the first participants to cast their ballots in the tightly-contested elections which could see her become the desert nation's first woman president.
Currently, Tanzania's Samia Suluhu Hassan is Africa's only female president, in the continent which has also had a few women as heads of State and government.
Nobel Laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf made history as Africa's first elected female president, and she served her nation from as the 24th president of Liberia from 2006 to 2018.
Joyce Hilda Banda served as president of Malawi from April 2012 to May 2014 following the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika. She was the country’s fourth President.
Sahle-Work Zewde served as president of Ethiopia from 2018 until October 2024. Last month, Ethiopia's parliament approved the appointment of a new president to replace the country's first female head of state, Zewde.
IOL