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2019 Namibian general election

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2019 Namibian general election

← 2014 27 November 2019 (2019-11-27) 2024 →
Registered1,358,468
Presidential election
Turnout60.82%
 
Nominee Hage Geingob Panduleni Itula McHenry Venaani
Party SWAPO Independent PDM
Popular vote 464,703 242,657 43,959
Percentage 56.25% 29.37% 5.32%

President before election

Hage Geingob
SWAPO

Elected President

Hage Geingob
SWAPO

Parliamentary election

96 of the 104 seats in the National Assembly
53 seats needed for a majority
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
SWAPO Hage Geingob 65.45 63 −14
PDM McHenry Venaani 16.65 16 +11
LPM Bernadus Swartbooi 4.75 4 New
NUDO Esther Muinjangue 1.96 2 0
APP Ignatius Shixwameni 1.79 2 0
UDF Apius Auchab 1.79 2 0
RP Henk Mudge 1.77 2 +1
NEFF Epafras Mukwiilongo 1.66 2 +2
RDP Mike Kavekotora 1.09 1 −2
CDV Faustus Thomas 0.71 1 +1
SWANU Tangeni Iiyambo 0.65 1 0
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Maps

General elections were held in Namibia on 27 November 2019.[1] Ballots were cast using electronic voting.[2] A total of eleven candidates ran for the presidency and fifteen political parties contested the National Assembly elections.

Hage Geingob of SWAPO was re-elected to the presidency, although his vote share was reduced from 87% in 2014 to 56%, their lowest vote share for a presidential election in the party's history.[3] SWAPO also retained their majority in the National Assembly, but lost their two-thirds supermajority.[4] SWAPO had held a two-thirds majority since the 1994 elections.[5]

Electoral system

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The President of Namibia is elected using the two-round system; if no candidate receives more than 50% in the first round of voting, a run-off will be held. No previous presidential votes in Namibia have gone to a second round.[6]

The 104 members of the National Assembly consist of 96 elected members and eight (non-voting) members appointed by the President.[7] The 96 elected members are elected by closed list proportional representation from 14 multi-member constituencies based on the regions. Seats are allocated using the largest remainder method.[8]

Political parties

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SWAPO

[edit]

SWAPO was viewed as the clear favorite going into the 2019 election, although the rise of new parties, such as the Landless People's Movement, was predicted to cause a split in the vote.[9] In 2014, the ruling SWAPO Party announced a gender equality system where half of SWAPO's seats in parliament would be held by women. The party also embraced what it called a "zebra system", whereby if a minister was a woman, the deputy minister would be a man, and vice versa. Due to there being more male SWAPO MPs than female MPs, SWAPO put forward plans to expand parliament to remove the risk of male MPs losing their seats as a result of this gender equality policy.[10] This change, raising the number of seats from 78 to 104, was enacted in 2014, although it was officially framed as allowing for wider representation of the population.[11]

Opposition

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Opposition parties had the objective of removing SWAPO's two-thirds majority in the National Assembly. The Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters (NEFF) and the Republican Party (RP), both without a realistic chance in the previous elections, withdrew their presidential candidates in early November and instead endorsed the independent candidate Panduleni Itula.[12] The United Democratic Front (UDF) in turn withdrew their candidate to back McHenry Venaani, presidential candidate of the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) and leader of the official opposition. In August 2019, the two parties signed a coalition agreement for the coming legislative period, allocating parliamentary seats 6, 13 and 18 to the UPM, and the others to PDM, in an entity to be known as the PDM-UPM coalition.[13] The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP) formed a coalition with the Christian Democratic Voice (CDV), both parties supported Mike Kavekotora of the RDP.[14]

Parties that contested the legislative election

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The following parties fielded candidates to contest the legislative election:[15][16][17][18]

Party Leader Founded 2014 result
Votes (%) Seats
SWAPO South West Africa People's Organisation Hage Geingob 1960 80.01%
77 / 104
PDM Popular Democratic Movement McHenry Venaani 1977 4.80%
5 / 104
RDP Rally for Democracy and Progress Mike Kavekotora 2007 3.51%
3 / 104
APP All People's Party Ignatius Shixwameni 2007 2.29%
2 / 104
UDF United Democratic Front Apius Auchab 1989 2.12%
2 / 104
NUDO National Unity Democratic Organisation Esther Muinjangue 1964 2.01%
2 / 104
WRP Workers Revolutionary Party Hewat Beukes 1984 1.49%
2 / 104
SWANU South West African National Union Tangeni Iiyambo 1959 0.71%
1 / 104
RP Republican Party Henk Mudge 1977 0.68%
1 / 104
COD Congress of Democrats Ben Ulenga 1999 0.38%
0 / 104
NEFF Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters Epafras Mukwiilongo 2014 0.36%
0 / 104
CDV Christian Democratic Voice Faustus Thomas 2014 0.29%
0 / 104
NDP National Democratic Party 2003 0.16%
0 / 104
NPF National Patriotic Front Uapiruka Papama 1989
LPM Landless People's Movement Bernadus Swartbooi 2016

Campaign

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Ten candidates contested the presidential elections, with Hage Geingob of SWAPO widely expected to win a second term as president.[19][20] For the first time, an independent candidate, Panduleni Itula, ran for president. Esther Muinjangue of the National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) was the first female presidential candidate in Namibia.[21]

Results

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President

[edit]

Hage Geingob won the presidential election and received a second term as president. His percentage of votes gained, however, dropped significantly from 87% in 2014 to 56% in 2019. While rural areas predominantly supported Geingob, many urban centres voted for the independent candidate, Panduleni Itula, who received 29% of the overall votes. No other candidate achieved a two-digit result.[22]

CandidatePartyVotes%
Hage GeingobSWAPO464,70356.25
Panduleni ItulaIndependent242,65729.37
McHenry VenaaniPopular Democratic Movement43,9595.32
Bernadus SwartbooiLandless People's Movement22,5422.73
Apius AuchabUnited Democratic Front22,1152.68
Esther MuinjangueNational Unity Democratic Organisation12,0391.46
Tangeni IiyamboSWANU5,9590.72
Henk MudgeRepublican Party4,3790.53
Mike KavekotoraRally for Democracy and Progress3,5150.43
Ignatius ShixwameniAll People's Party3,3040.40
Epafras MukwiilongoNamibian Economic Freedom Fighters1,0260.12
Total826,198100.00
Valid votes826,198100.00
Invalid/blank votes00.00
Total votes826,198100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,358,46860.82
Source: ECN

National Assembly

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SWAPO won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, as it had in years prior, but narrowly missed the threshold for a two-thirds majority, which it had held since 1994. Consequently, opposition parties also gained seats, most prominently the PDM, which obtained 16 seats in the National Assembly.[22] The PDM's 16.60% vote share is its best electoral performance since the 1994 election.

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
SWAPO536,86165.4563–14
Popular Democratic Movement136,57616.6516+11
Landless People's Movement38,9564.754New
National Unity Democratic Organisation16,0661.9620
All People's Party14,6641.7920
United Democratic Front14,6441.7920
Republican Party14,5461.772+1
Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters13,5801.662+2
Rally for Democracy and Progress8,9531.091–2
Christian Democratic Voice5,8410.711+1
SWANU5,3300.6510
Congress of Democrats4,6540.5700
National Democratic Party4,5590.5600
Workers Revolutionary Party3,2120.390–2
National Patriotic Front1,7850.220New
Appointed members80
Total820,227100.001040
Valid votes820,227100.00
Invalid/blank votes00.00
Total votes820,227100.00
Registered voters/turnout1,358,46860.38
Source: ECN
[edit]

Runner-up Itula challenged the outcome of the elections in court, based on the Electoral Act of 2014 that allows electronic voting machines (EVMs) only in combination with a Verifiable Paper Trail (VPPT). For the Namibian elections in 2014, 2015 and now 2019, EVMs without a paper trail were used after Charles Namoloh, the responsible minister at the time, enacted the law without the paper trail provision. The Supreme Court of Namibia ruled in February 2020 that this enactment was unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers. The court, however, declined to set aside the elections carried out using such failed process, as there were no indications the devices were tampered with.[23] This has attracted some controversy.[24]

References

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  1. ^ "2019 Presidential & National Assembly Election Calendar". Electoral Commission of Namibia. Archived from the original on 18 June 2019. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  2. ^ Iikela, Sakeus (23 September 2020). "ECN undecided on discarded EVMs". The Namibian. p. 1.
  3. ^ Melber, Henning (2020). "Namibia's parliamentary and presidential elections: the honeymoon is over". The Round Table. 109 (1): 13–22. doi:10.1080/00358533.2020.1717090. hdl:2263/73508. ISSN 0035-8533.
  4. ^ Swapo's two-thirds majority broken The Namibian, 1 December 2019
  5. ^ Melber, Henning (2023). "Explorations into middle class urbanites, social movements and political dynamics: impressions from Namibia's capital, Windhoek". Journal of Contemporary African Studies. 41 (1): 94–105. doi:10.1080/02589001.2022.2081671. hdl:2263/90676. ISSN 0258-9001.
  6. ^ "Namibia's Ruling Party Faces Unexpectedly Challenging Vote". The New York Times. Associated Press. 24 November 2019.
  7. ^ The Three Branches of Government Hanns Seidel Foundation
  8. ^ Electoral system IPU
  9. ^ Expect more promises in 2019: Kamwanyah Archived 2019-03-27 at the Wayback Machine Lela, 23 January 2019
  10. ^ Namibia's 'zebra' politics could make it stand out from the global herd The Guardian, 8 July 2014
  11. ^ Iikela, Sakeus (24 August 2017). "Where is the opposition ... when Swapo is fighting itself?". The Namibian. pp. 6–7.
  12. ^ Nembwaya, Hileni (7 November 2019). "NEFF and RP throw weight behind Itula". The Namibian. p. 1.
  13. ^ Klukowski, Steven (24 October 2019). "PDM-UPM coalition to challenge Swapo". New Era.
  14. ^ "RDP, Christian Democratic Voice form coalition". The Namibian. Namibia Press Agency. 6 September 2019. p. 3.
  15. ^ Andreas, Rakkel, ed. (October 2019). "Presidential and National Assembly Election 2019" (PDF). Spot the Difference:Namibia's Political Parties Compared. Namibia Media Holdings. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  16. ^ "Election for Namibian National Assembly". Election Guide. Archived from the original on 26 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  17. ^ "RDP, Christian Democratic Voice form coalition". The Namibian. 6 September 2019. Archived from the original on 27 December 2022. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  18. ^ "About RPD". www.rpd.org. Archived from the original on 27 April 2009. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
  19. ^ Melber, Henning (26 November 2019). "Namibian elections: The sands are shifting – slowly". Mail & Guardian.
  20. ^ "After the victory, comes the battle". Windhoek Observer. 22 October 2019. Archived from the original on 27 November 2019. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  21. ^ Ngwawi, Joseph (21 November 2019). "Letters to the Editor: All set for Namibian elections". The Chronicle.
  22. ^ a b Iikela, Sakeus (2 December 2019). "Reduced victory ... Swapo, Geingob drop votes". The Namibian. p. 1.
  23. ^ Menges, Werner (6 February 2020). "Election survives EVM challenge". The Namibian. p. 1.
  24. ^ Ndeunyema, Ndjodi. "Vote, But You Cannot Verify: The Namibian Supreme Court's Presidential Election Decision". Oxford Human Rights Hub. University of Oxford.