by Bayano Valy – SANF 04 no 97
Namibians started casting their votes on 15 November with one question on their minds: by what margin will the ruling party and its presidential candidate Hifikepunye Pohamba win the two-day election?
The South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) has been in power since Namibia won independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990 after a protracted armed struggle.
President Sam Nujoma, who has been at the helm of his country for 14 years, will formally hand over power in March 2005 to his successor – most likely to be Pohamba.
There is little doubt that Swapo will win the presidential and parliamentary elections, but Pohamba wants a clear majority, more than Nujoma’s 77 percent won in the 1999 poll. He would like to win comfortably in first round; the constitution requires 50 percent to avoid a second round run-off.
After casting his ballot early on Monday in Windhoek East, Pohamba called on Namibians to go to the polling stations and “vote for presidential candidate of the party that did most for this country.”
Key issues in this election, besides the transition itself, include the consolidation of recent gains in the social sector such as health and education, as well as infrastructural development and access to land as the basis for building a sound economy.
Swapo has land reform at the core of its national economic development policy.
Pohamba, the incumbent Minister of Lands, Resettlement and Rehabilitation, has spearheaded the acquisition of derelict land for redistribution, but most commercial farmland still remains in the hands of a few thousand, mostly white, commercial farmers.
President Nujoma has taken the opportunity of the election campaign to remind voters that the armed liberation struggle was fought mainly for the black majority to have access to land and other natural resources. He said land reform and redistribution is the biggest challenge facing the government.
Swapo advocates bringing smallholder farmers into the mainstream of the Namibian economy, redressing past imbalances in the distribution of land as a resource, creating employment, and offering landless citizens an opportunity to reintegrate into society.
Within its existing policy framework, Swapo says it intends to continue to make commercial farmland available, through different models of resettlement and acquiring land in commercial farming areas for that purpose.
Their 2004 election manifesto puts emphasis on the importance of proper and sustainable land management, realistic valuation, land use and planning for both communal and commercial land. There is also a commitment to accelerate the acquisition of land and to resettle greater numbers of landless Namibians with “the necessary productive and environmental skills.”
The manifesto says a Swapo government will consider expropriating 192 farms belonging to absentee landlords with a total surface area of about 1.2 million hectares.
Nujoma also promised that a Swapo government will continue to improve water supply and sanitation services, particularly in rural areas.
One issue that dominated the run up to the elections was voter apathy, with some Namibians feeling no need to vote due to the foregone conclusion that Pohamba and Swapo would win.
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and contesting political parties however campaigned vigorously on this issue, urging Namibia’s 977,742 registered voters to flock to the 1,168 polling stations spread throughout the country, and cast their votes on 15 and 16 November.
The message was heeded in Windhoek, where people started queuing long before seven o’ clock in the morning when the polling stations opened, and the lines grew longer as the day went on.
There were some difficulties with a new electronic voting system which officials at some polling stations said did not access the voters roll properly, forcing them to check the roll manually.
Voters expressed disappointment by the delays that ensued, taking anything from 10 minutes to two hours to sort out the technological problems, while the queues were moving slowly. Namibians refused to let the technical glitches dampen their voting mood, and stayed in lines to exercise their right to vote.
Windhoek is not by any means the largest constituency. Political parties were focusing their attention on the large northern constituencies such as Omusati with 109,000 eligible voters, Ohangwena with 102,000 eligible voters, followed by Oshana with 82,000, and Oshikoto with 77,000.
In 1999, Nujoma collected 414,096 votes, around 77 percent of the total vote cast, compared to 56,541 votes or 11 percent for Ben Ulenga of the main opposition party, the Congress of Democrats (CoD). Third then was Katuutire Kaura of the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) who amassed 10 percent of the total vote.
In the same election, Swapo got 55 out of the 72 seats for the National Assembly. In a distant second place was the DTA with seven seats.
Analysts expect Swapo to take about 60 seats of the 72 available in parliament.
Difference within the DTA alliance have seen two parties break away; the Republican Party and the Namibian Unity Democratic Organisation are now standing on their own.
This development could see the DTA losing its official opposition status as it could be overtaken by the CoD, which ran for the first time in 1999.
The answers should be known on Thursday 18 November when the election results are announced. (SARDC)
