Namibia’s first female President Netumbo Nandi-Ndiatvah said on Thursday that her victory in a disputed vote last week had broken the “glass ceiling”.
The election authority announced on Tuesday that the vice president received just over 57 percent of the vote, well ahead of the main opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) candidate’s 25.5 percent.
Yet the IPC said it did not recognize the vote, pointing to “numerous irregularities.”
“As a woman, I am the first to admit that my election to the country’s highest office will certainly break the glass ceiling for a Namibian woman,” she told reporters in her first briefing after announcing her victory. is going to break.”
Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, became the first woman to rule the mineral-rich nation, ruled by her South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) party since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
In his address, Namibia’s new leader praised former Liberian head of state Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who became the African continent’s first female president in 2006, as “really leading the way”.
“And for me, it’s just reaffirming that women and men have equal responsibility in society is a reality,” Nandi-Ndaitawah said.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, a SWAPO veteran known by her initials NNN, will be one of Africa’s few female leaders.
The conservative daughter of an Anglican clergyman, she assumed the role of Vice President in February this year.
He has taken a tough stance on abortion, which is banned in the country except in exceptional circumstances, and has not advocated for women’s rights.
Appearing without his traditional “dok” head wrap, Nandi-Ndaitawah insisted on Thursday that his victory had given him and his SWAPO party “constitutional and moral legitimacy to govern”.
But the November 27 election, which was moved up to November 30, was hit by logistical and technical issues, including a shortage of ballot papers, which led to long queues. Some voters gave up after waiting for 12 hours on the first day of voting.
Opposition organization IPC said it was a deliberate attempt to frustrate voters and that it would not accept the results.
‘Radical change’
Nandy-Ndaitawah promised sweeping changes on Thursday.
“This is not going to be business as usual. We have to make a paradigm shift in addressing the plight of our people, especially Dalit and vulnerable communities,” said the President-elect, who will be sworn in on March 21, 2025. ,
Nandy-Ndaitawah, who has been in government since 2000, refused to blame the electoral commission when asked about the management of the vote and said the authority had brought the process to a conclusion.
Namibia’s Electoral Commission acknowledged failures in the organization of the vote, including a shortage of ballot papers and overheating of the electronic tablets used to register voters.
On Tuesday it was said that about 77 percent of the approximately 1.5 million registered voters in the sparsely populated country had cast their ballot for the president.
Yet, while turnout was higher than previous presidential turnouts, it was also notably uneven.
In the northern areas of Ohangwena and Omusati, the historic SWAPO stronghold where the NNN performed best with around 80 and 83 percent turnout, voter turnout reached 91 and 92 percent, much higher than the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, in the densely populated Khomas region, which includes the capital Windhoek and where several election failures were recorded, only 67 percent of registered voters cast their ballots.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)