It has been a time of change for Africa with Namibia selecting its first female President, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Namibia voted both a new President and a more diverse National Assembly in the country’s seventh elections since gaining independence from South Africa in 1990. Initially scheduled on 27 November 2024, in some regions polls ran as late as 30 November due to poor planning. Opposition parties decried the move, boycotting the declaration and challenging the polls in court. This discontent has (however) begun to subside, given widespread respect for the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN), and the disappointing performance of the ruling SWAPO party. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the ruling SWAPO party was declared winner and Namibia’s first female president. Yet, the Assembly elections saw SWAPO reduced to 51 seats, a majority of three. SWAPO, which gained its base fighting against apartheid in 1990, has not recently attracted Namibia’s younger voters who are angry at high unemployment.

An ECN spokesman advised me:

We are caught in a dilemma. We enjoy large-scale respect from all the parties, but we run elections based on modern technology that does not work well across our country. We know this was a disaster in 2019 when the machines let us down. We have reclaimed something from the technical slips there.  We had to delay the polls in some places as late as 30 November. We are still stuck with the challenge of delivering a modern, western-style election when the IT is just not ready. When it fails, people naturally get suspicious…It is a challenge.

Prior to the election, online disinformation campaigns targeted various candidates. These included false allegations such as Panduleni Itula being a “British agent”; purported footage of another opposition candidate, Bernadus Swartbooi, making tribalist statements towards Itula; and lampooning of the President-elect. Various politicians also accused the Zimbabwean ZANU–PF of spreading false information.

A SWAPO spokeswoman explained:

We see this election as both a victory in the coronation of the first female president from our party, but also as a sign that we need to work harder to make this country better, to improve the economy, to create jobs, to get investment, and to rise  prosperity…. We know that SWAPO cannot trade on the........

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