President Hifikenpunye Pohamba of the Republic of Namibia is the leader from the ruling party SWAPO. He is a former political prisoner of apartheid during the armed struggle to liberate the African nation.
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Polling stations in Namibia have closed after two days of voting in national and presidential elections expected to return the long-ruling SWAPO to power despite a tough challenge from a new breakaway party that denounced irregularities.
Polling stations in Namibia have closed after two days of voting in national and presidential elections expected to return the long-ruling SWAPO to power despite a tough challenge from a new breakaway party that denounced irregularities.
"All polling stations have closed, except a few where there were still voters queuing," Theo Mujoro, deputy director of operations of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) told AFP on Saturday.
Counting started directly after closing and will continue through the night. The first polling results were expected by noon on Sunday.
Four opposition parties, including the breakaway party Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), claimed late on Saturday that irregularities had taken place during the two days of voting.
"The so-called indelible ink put on the finger of voters could be washed off at several voting stations, (and) one mobile polling station in the northern Ohangwena Region did not put the official stamp of the electoral commission on ballot papers, which makes them spoilt votes," Jesaya Nyamu, secretary-general of the RDP, told reporters.
"We notified the ECN about these and other incidents but no action was taken," he said, flanked by representatives of three other opposition parties.
"Our four parties will compile a dossier about all irregularities and make them public early next week. The credibility of free and fair elections is compromised."
Libolly Haufiku, administrative boss of the RDP, said "the biggest worry" was the different figures of eligible voters given by the commission.
"There are now 822,344 voters on the roll we received on the CD-ROM Thursday. Two weeks ago the previous CD-ROM had 1,181 835 voters and the ECN declared earlier this month there were 1.16 million voters on their roll and in October they declared they had 1.3 million on the roll. This is worrisome," Haufiku said.
Polling ran smoothly in most parts of the sparsely populated nation but was tarnished by the arrest of two polling officers found tampering with ballot boxes on Friday.
President Hifikepunye Pohamba, the successor to Namibia's founding father Sam Nujoma, is seeking a second term in office and is expected to see off a challenge from a former foreign minister.
Hamutenya launched the new RDP party two years ago after losing an attempt to take over SWAPO following the retirement of Nujoma in 2004.
The two parties are the biggest of 12 putting forward candidates for the presidency, with the RDP claiming about 390,000 supporters from an estimated 1.1 million voters.
The RDP does not expect to win but hopes to become the main opposition party.
AFP
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