OPPOSITION CRIES FOUL AS NAMIBIANS RE-ELECT INCUMBENT PRESIDENT

Incumbent Namibian President, Hage Geingob, was re-elected with 56.3% of the votes cast, a very sharp drop from the 86% he received five years ago.

The leader of the South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO), which has been in power since Namibia’s independence in 1990, was well ahead of Panduleni Itula, SWAPO’s dissident candidate, who won 30% of the vote, according to election commission figures released.

Opposition leader McHenry Venaani polled just 5.3%. His party, the People’s Democratic Movement’s ties to apartheid South Africa continues to discourage a large portion of the electorate.

However, Panduleni Itula and the leader of a new opposition party, Bernadus Swartbooi’s Landless Movement (LPM), reported electoral fraud. Itula claimed that the exercise was marred by “irregularities”.

The 62 year old former dentist, who accuses the president of selling the country’s wealth to foreigners, particularly popular among young people, came out on top in the capital, Windhoek.

Namibia is the first African country to introduce electronic voting in 2014. The equipment has been criticized by the opposition, which claims that the absence of paper ballots increases the possibility of fraud.