Namibia election: Swapo’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah faces Panduleni Itula from the IPC

If issues work out as Namibia’s long-time governing social gathering hopes, the nation will likely be electing its first feminine head of state this week.

But 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 menace 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 at the moment Africa’s solely feminine president, so Nandi-Ndaitwah could be becoming a member of an unique membership if she is victorious.

Her social gathering, completely dominant for 3 many years, noticed a big drop in its assist within the final normal election. It goes into Wednesday’s vote amid an unemployment fee 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 principal challenger among the many 14 different candidates – Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) social gathering.

She can also be up in opposition to a standard and male-dominated political tradition within the nation.

But 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 have always believed in teamwork, that is what made me achieve what I have achieved,” she has mentioned.

Known for her hands-on and pragmatic model of management, the vice-president can also be fiercely loyal to the social gathering, which she joined as a youngster.

At 14 she turned a part of the motion resisting rule from South Africa, which had ruled the nation – then generally known as South West Africa – because the finish of World War One and later launched the racist system of apartheid.

She was recognised for her tenacity and organisational expertise as chief of Swapo’s Youth League, which turned a stepping stone to her political profession, which has included ministerial roles in international affairs, tourism, youngster welfare and knowledge.

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 seems so wise and sweet and kind, even in the way she tries to say everything in such a way that even like me will understand,” Laimi, a possible voter, instructed the BBC within the capital, Windhoek.

“Itula is like a new piece of jewellery with his glasses, his smart suit and his confident walk, but maybe he blinds you with his shine,” mentioned her good friend Maria.

Both are younger adults who’ve been unable to search out jobs.

A skilled dentist, Itula, 67, was himself as soon as a Swapo stalwart however was expelled from the social gathering in 2020 after runnig as an impartial candidate in opposition to 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 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 likewise shedding its two-thirds majority in parliament.

As somebody who had knowledgeable life exterior 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 individuals and the rising city intelligentsia.

But whereas Itula is fast off the mark and eloquent, the vice-president chooses her phrases properly, and speaks slowly and intentionally.

Nandi-Ndaitwah seeks concord and teamwork, emphasising group, ardour and care, and as such, reaches proper right down to the grass roots.

And as the primary girl with an opportunity of changing into the nation’s president, she carries the hope of some ladies who desire a change from the patriarchal society.

However, Nandi-Ndaitwah represents the “tried and trusted” old skool of Namibia’s liberation battle, whereas Itula represents the doable “wind of change” in a political panorama needing a facelift.

According to 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 forged.

In neighbouring South Africa, the African National Congress, in energy since 1994, was compelled right into a coalition following May’s normal election. While in Botswana – simply to the east – the Botswana Democratic Party, dominant for almost six many years, crashed to a humiliating defeat at the end of last month.

Swapo desires to keep away from the identical destiny.

The winner on Wednesday would be the candidate who could be most trusted on points reminiscent of youth unemployment, corruption, well being care, training and infrastructure enchancment, whereas additionally with the ability to bolster the economic system.

This might want to occur with out having to dump the nation’s huge pure sources to international bidders – reminiscent of off-shore gasoline 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 various. It has gained reward for the way in which it has run some native governments.

Nandi-Ndaitwah’s greatest asset could also be that she is, as Namibian diplomat Tuliameni Kalomoh as soon as said, seen as “incorruptible, both morally and materially”.