With a population of 2.45 million, around 1.4 million Namibians are registered to vote.
Namibians will vote in a general election on Wednesday, with the incumbent president facing discontent over the ailing economy despite the nation being one of the most mineral-rich in Africa.
The disaffection has fuelled support for ex-dentist Panduleni Itula, 62, a Swapo member standing as an independent candidate. Around 2,500 people clad in green, red and blue party colours joined in singing liberation struggle songs.His PDM party is haunted by the legacy of its affiliation with apartheid South Africa before independence, which continues to deter voters. The rest of Namibia’s opposition is ethnically divided.“With a weak opposition like that you don’t need friends,” he added.Despite World Bank predictions of recovery this year, growth remained negative for the first two quarters of 2019.
“I fought for the country, but today I am very disappointed,” said 77-year-old Swapo war veteran Naftali Ngiyalwa, who sells flip-flops on Windhoek’s Independence Avenue. Geingob’s credibility took another hit this month after WikiLeaks published evidence of government officials taking bribes from an Icelandic fishing company and two ministers resigned.Meanwhile, the opposition is concerned over the use of electronic voting machines , claiming the absence of paper records raises prospects of fraud.
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