Namibians will be heading to the polls today, 27 November 2024, to elect a new president and members of the National Assembly in a contest that could be the most competitive since the country gained independence in 1990.
72-year-old Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the current vice president, is a strong contender to become its first female leader as the country’s 1.4 million registered voters decide who will run the country for a 5-year term.
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s record
At 14, she joined Namibia’s independence movement against South African rule. At the time, Namibia—then called South West Africa—had been under South African governance since the end of World War I, a regime that later introduced the racist system of apartheid.
Recognised for her tenacity and organisational skills, she rose to prominence as the leader of Swapo’s Youth League, which launched her political career. Over the years, Nandi-Ndaitwah has held several ministerial roles, including overseeing foreign affairs, tourism, child welfare and information.
From 1990 to 1996, she was deputy Minister of International Relations and Cooperation before she became the Director-General of Women’s Affairs in the Office of the President, where she served until 2000.
A long-standing member of SWAPO, Namibia’s ruling party, and the National Assembly, Nandi-Ndaitwah made history in 2017 when she was elected vice-president of SWAPO at its sixth Congress. She is the first woman to serve in that position.
With over 25 years in politics, she has become a trusted leader, solidifying her reputation as a key figure in the nation’s political landscape.
Meet her opposition
Nandi-Ndaitwah’s main challenger among the 14 other candidates is Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party.
The former dentist was a youth leader and spent some time in prison before going into exile in the UK in the early 1980s and returning to Namibia in 2013.
Six years later, he charismatically came crashing into the front row of Namibian politics, challenging Geingob in the presidential election after saying the Swapo process for choosing its candidate was flawed.
Itula managed to secure 29.4% of the vote in the 2019 election, where he ran against President Hage Geingob, who got 56.3%.
The hope for a change
Nandi-Ndaitwah is also up against a traditional culture in the country, and her win will contribute to a change in political culture in Namibia, where male politicians have been dominant since independence.
As a strong contender, she carries the hope of women who seek a change from a patriarchal society. Her victory means she will join Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan, who is currently Africa’s only incumbent female president.
This is a developing story.
