Presidential election in Namibia 2019

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The presidential election in Namibia 2019 took place on November 27, 2019, together with the parliamentary election . The Namibian President was elected .

The election was won by incumbent Hage Geingob , with a loss of about 30 percentage points compared to the 2014 election. It was the lowest election result for a president since independence in 1990.

As was the case in 2014 , the election was carried out with electronic voting machines (EVM). A corresponding lawsuit against the use of the EVMs was dismissed on November 25, 2019. The opposition party Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) had previously requested in January 2019 that verification devices with paper printouts be added.

The partial replacement of the Namibian Election Commission took place in February 2019. The election by Namibians abroad, Namibians at sea and the members of the police , the army and the prison system deployed on election day took place on November 13th. The counting of all votes should be completed within two days by November 29, 2019. You can vote in 4241 polling stations .

All nominees were registered by October 18, 2019.

Starting position

In the 2014 presidential election, Hage Geingob won the election with an unprecedented result since independence. Only four other politicians who stood for election in 2014 will take part again in 2019.

Presidential candidate (party) be right Voting shares
Hage Geingob ( SWAPO ) 772.528 86.73%
McHenry Venaani ( DTA ) 44,271 4.97%
Henk Mudge ( RP ) 8,676 0.97%
Ignatius Shixwameni ( APP ) 7,266 0.82%
Epafras Mukwiilongo ( NEFF ) 2,514 0.28%

elections

Voter registration

The post-voter registration took place July 8-27. 200,000 people registered, so that the electoral register in July 2019 comprised just under 1.2 million Namibians. The final voter register was presented on November 3, 2019. It comprised 1,358,468 people, 717,809 of whom were women. With 257,559 most of them were registered in the Khomas region , least with 44,502 in the Omaheke region .

Candidates

The first candidate for the office of Namibian President had already emerged in 2017. On October 18, 2019, the electoral commission confirmed receipt of eleven applications for the office. There were ten party leaders and one independent candidate. On November 7, 2019, the RP and NEFF presidential candidates announced their withdrawal from the election in favor of the independent candidate Panduleni Itula. For the first time in the country's history, an equal duel between two candidates, incumbent Hage Geingob and Panduleni Itula, was announced in advance, especially on the basis of the special election day. There was talk of the shortlist so far in advance.

* Candidacy withdrawn.

SWAPO

The SWAPO traditionally sent its party leader into the running as a presidential candidate. Through the internal party election in October 2017, Hage Geingob was the candidate for the 2019 elections, provided that he had not waived his prerogative. He ran for a second and final term as President.

PDM

As party leader of the largest opposition party, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), McHenry Venaani - according to the party statutes - had the right to run for president. In March 2019 he announced that he would make use of this right, which was confirmed by his re-election as party chairman in April 2019. Venaani was the second strongest candidate in 2014 with just under 5 percent.

NUDO

For the first time, NUDO President Utjiua Muinjangue, a woman wanted to try for the office of President.

RDP / CDV

The Rally for Democracy and Progress and the Christian Democratic Voice Party announced an election alliance for the upcoming elections in early September 2019. The CDV should support the RDP President Mike Kavekotora as a presidential candidate.

Independent candidate

On October 8, 2019, the Namibian Election Commission confirmed receipt of the application documents from Panduleni Itula , a highly respected politician, dentist and lawyer. He had already announced a possible candidacy at the end of March 2019. According to SWAPO, this is an offense against the party constitution, since Itula is a SWAPO member.

Election process

Election day was generally very peaceful. The police only had to intervene in a few circumstances, including when voters wanted to express their displeasure with long waiting times. The election commission admitted administrative, logistical and technical problems on election evening. However, at no time did they have a decisive influence on the election process. Polling stations were sometimes open until the early morning. All people were allowed to cast their vote, which was due at 9 p.m. at the official closing time.

The counting of votes was extremely slow and opaque, despite the use of electronic voting machines. After 38 hours, less than 50 percent of the votes cast had been counted. First allegations of electoral fraud were made on November 29th by the LPM.

On November 29, the electoral commission announced that the final results could not be published within 48 hours due to ongoing technical problems. The official final result was announced on the evening of November 30, 2019.

Election result

Winning candidate by constituency 2019 Geingob Itula Venaani Swartbooi Muinjangue





candidate Political party be right Change
from 2014 		Voting shares Change
from 2014
Hage Geingob SWAPO 464.703 56.3% −30.43  
Panduleni Itula independently 242,657 - 29.4% -
McHenry Venaani PDM 43,959 - 05.3% +0.33  
Bernadus Swartbooi LPM 22,542 - 02.7% -
Apius, also ab UDF 22,115 - 02.7% -
Utjiua Muinjangue NUDO 12,039 - 01.5% -
Tangeni Iijambo SWANU 5,959 - 00.7% -
Ignatius Shixwameni APP 3,304 00.4% −0.42  
Mike Kavekotora RDP / CDV 3,050 - 00.4% -
Henk Mudge * RP 4,379 00.50% −0.47  
Epafras Mukwiilongo * NEFF 1,026 00.1% −0.18  
Total (voter turnout 60.8%) 826.198
Final result November 30, 2019.

* Candidacy withdrawn; Since a withdrawal is not possible according to the electoral law, it was still possible to cast votes for these two candidates.

Review

The joint election observation mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) published its preliminary report on November 29, 2019. So the elections were peaceful.

Immediately after the election results were announced, opposition parties announced that they would take legal action against election fraud. On December 3, 2019, Itula announced that it would take legal action before the Supreme Court . A court hearing on the objection took place on January 17, 2020. The decision was made on February 5, 2020. The court sees no reason for annulment and repetition of the election. However, it admitted that from now on the use of electronic voting machines would only be permitted if there was verification by means of a paper printout.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ SWAPO women president a distant dream. Windhoek Observer, July 21, 2017.
  2. ↑ Itula's EVM application dismissed. Informanté, November 25, 2019.
  3. ↑ Venaani stands by demand for paper VVPAT-fitted EVMs. Namibia Press Agency, January 15, 2019.
  4. ↑ Parliament Endorses Geingob's Preferred ECN commissioners. New Era, February 15, 2019.
  5. ↑ 2019 Presidential & National Assembly Election Calendar. Electoral Commission of Namibia. Retrieved June 18, 2019.
  6. ↑ Remarks by Adv. Notemba Tjipueja, Chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia on the occasion of Nominations for the 2019 President and National Assembly Elections. ECN Head Office, October 18, 2019.
  7. ↑ Youth leaders say 200,000 supplementary voters are not worth celebrating. Namibia Press Agency, July 30, 2019.
  8. ^ Final Statistics of National Voter Register. Electoral Commission of Namibia, November 3, 2019.
  9. ^ Eleven to contest for presidency. Namibia Press Agency, October 18, 2019.
  10. ^ NEFF, RP throw weight behind Itula. The Namibian, November 8, 2019.
  11. ↑ Geingob and Itula neck to neck in early polls. The Patriot, November 15, 2019.
  12. ↑ Special vote results show close race between President Geingob and independent candidate. NBC; November 14, 2019.
  13. ^ Namibians vote in tight contest clouded by economic crisis. Reuters, November 27, 2019.
  14. ↑ An interesting election in Namibia, at last. The Namibian, November 26, 2019.
  15. ↑ Namibia's President Geingob elected leader of ruling SWAPO party. African News, November 27, 2017.
  16. ^ Venaani dreams of a smaller cabinet. Namibia Press Agency , March 14, 2019.
  17. ^ RDP, CDV form coalition. NAMPA, September 5, 2019.
  18. ↑ Itula submits papers to contest upcoming elections to ECN. Namibia Press Agency, October 8, 2019.
  19. ↑ Nikanor tells 'independent candidate' proponents to relinquish membership. Namibia Press Agency , March 27, 2019.
  20. ↑ Statement by Theo Mujoro, Chief Electoral and Referenda Officer regarding the voting process - 2019 Presidential and National Assembly Elections. Electoral Commission of Namibia, November 27, 2019.
  21. ↑ Rress statement. Landless Peoples Movement, November 29, 2019.
  22. ↑ Declared final results of the 2019 Parliamentary and Presidential Elections. Electoral Commission of Namibia, November 30, 2019.
  23. ^ Preliminary Statement by the Head of the SADC Electoral Observation Mission (SEOM). SADC, November 29, 2019.
  24. ↑ Itula throws legal challenge at ECN. The Namibian, December 3, 2019.
  25. ↑ Election challenge: Supreme Court declines to order poll re-run. New Era, February 5, 2020.