Namibia\u2019s top opposition presidential candidate, Panduleni Itula, said Saturday that his party would not recognise the results of a controversially extended election marred by chaos and allegations of foul play.<\/p>\n
Speaking just before the close of polls on the final day of voting, Itula, whose Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is hoping to end 34 years of rule by the South West Africa People\u2019s Organisation (SWAPO), said that no matter the result, \u201cthe IPC shall not recognise the outcome of that election\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rule of law has been grossly violated and we cannot call these elections by any means or measure as free, fair and legitimate,\u201d said Itula, who finished second in the 2019 vote.<\/p>\n
With just 10 of the country\u2019s 121 constituencies counted, partial results showed SWAPO\u2019s candidate, Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, leading with 48 percent of the vote, followed by Itula with 29 percent.<\/p>\n
Electoral authorities decided to prolong voting in the presidential and legislative polls, after the original election day \u2014 Wednesday \u2014 was marred by logistical and technical failures that led to hours-long queues, which some voters eventually abandoned.<\/p>\n
Opposition parties have complained about the chaos and alleged voter suppression by the authorities in the face of a strong turnout for the ruling party\u2019s rivals.<\/p>\n
An organisation of southern African human rights lawyers serving as election monitors said that the delays at the ballot box were intentional and widespread.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere were deliberate delays of voting processes in more than 63 percent of the total polling stations across the country,\u201d the lawyers said in a report.<\/p>\n
Itula said that the IPC would \u201cfight\u2026 to nullify the elections through the processes that are established within our electoral process\u201d, calling on Namibia\u2019s President Nangolo Mbumba to call a cabinet meeting \u201cto determine exactly what should be done\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Namibians \u2018betrayed\u2019 \u2013<\/strong><\/p>\n On Saturday, hundreds of people queued up at the sole polling station in the capital Windhoek, where some 2,500 voters had cast their ballots on Friday.<\/p>\n Sielfriedt Gowaseb, 27, managed to vote in less than 30 minutes on Saturday but was critical of the arrangements.<\/p>\n \u201cThey should have set up at least another polling station where the majority of Namibians live. We would have needed more venues, one in the suburbs. Most Namibians don\u2019t live in the central business district,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Namibia\u2019s opposition is hoping to unseat SWAPO, which is facing its toughest challenge ever as disenchanted younger voters across southern Africa reject traditionally dominant liberation-era parties.<\/p>\n SWAPO has governed Namibia since leading it to independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990, but high youth unemployment and enduring inequalities have eroded its support.<\/p>\n Around 42 percent of the 1.5 million registered voters are aged under 35.<\/p>\n Naita Hishoono, executive director of the Namibia Institute for Democracy, a nonpartisan group, echoed popular dissatisfaction.<\/p>\n \u201cIt would have been helpful to open more than 36 polling stations\u2026 each constituency should have at least one polling station open to accommodate everybody. Every voter should only stay half an hour to an hour in line and the whole voting process should take no more than 15 minutes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n SWAPO\u2019s Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, could become the first woman to lead the country if she is elected.<\/p>\n But she is facing a fierce challenge from Itula, who said that Namibia had been \u201cbetrayed\u201d by the electoral authority\u2019s incompetence.<\/p>\n The Electoral Commission of\u00a0Namibia (ECN) has admitted to failures in the organisation of the vote, including a shortage of ballot papers and the overheating of electronic tablets used to register voters.<\/p>\n Itula,\u00a0a former dentist and lawyer, came second in the last presidential election with 29 percent of the vote while standing as an independent.<\/p>\n That performance was all the more remarkable for the fact it reduced SWAPO leader Hage Geingob\u2019s vote share to just 56 percent. The post Namibia opposition leader says will not recognise vote<\/a> appeared first on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Namibia\u2019s top opposition presidential candidate, Panduleni Itula, said Saturday that his party would not recognise the results of a controversially extended election marred by chaos and allegations of foul play. Speaking just before the close of polls on the final day of voting, Itula, whose Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) is hoping to end 34 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103901\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nGeingob, who died in February, had won nearly 87 percent five years before that.<\/p>\n