Ruling SWAPO party candidate and Vice president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has been declared winner of last week’s presidential election. According the results announced by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday, the president-elect garnered 57.31% of the votes making her the nation’s first female president and fifth female leader on the continent.
Namibia has elected its first female leader since the nation got independence in 1990. Ruling SWAPO party candidate and Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was announced on Tuesday as the winner of last week’s presidential polls.
With Nandi-Ndaitwah, now president-elect, the South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) has extended its rule in the southern African nation.
As per the electoral Commission’s data, she garnered 57.31% of the vote, beating 14 other candidates and crossing the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff.
“In accordance with Section 109 of the Electoral Act…I, Elsie Nghikembua, chairperson of the Electoral Commission of Namibia, do declare Her Excellency Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the SWAPO party as the winner and president-elect of the 2024 presidential elections,” Nghikembua said in the capital, Windhoek, in a declaration of the poll results.
Nandi-Ndaitwah will be Namibia’s fifth president and Africa’s fifth female leader after Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia between 2006 and 2018, Malawi’s Joyce Banda from 2012 to 2014, Ethiopia’s Sahle-Work Zewde from 2018 to 2024 and Tanzania’s incumbent Samia Suluhu Hassan.
She was previously SWAPO vice-president to President Hage Geingob, who passed in February 2024 and to the outgoing President Nangolo Mbumba, who continued in a transitional role after Geingob’s demise.
