Namibia elects FIRST female president

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, from the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), has been voted in as Namibia’s first female president after last week’s disputed election

The electoral commission said she had won more than 57% of the votes cast, with her closest rival Panduleni Itula getting 26%.

But following logistical problems and a three-day extension to polling in some parts of the country, Itula said on Saturday that his party would not recognise the results alleging electoral malpractice.

As a consequence, most of the opposition parties boycotted the results announcement on Tuesday evening in the capital, Windhoek, The Namibian newspaper reports.

“The Namibian nation has voted for peace and stability,” the Reuters news agency quotes Nandi-Ndaitwah as saying once the outcome had been announced.

Swapo has been in power in the large but sparsely populated southern African country since independence in 1990.

A party stalwart, Nandi-Ndaitwah, who is currently the vice-president, is a trusted leader having served in high government office for a quarter of a century.

Once sworn in she will be joining an exclusive club as at the moment Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan is Africa’s only female president.

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