Namibia faces election chaos as voting extended after ‘irregularities’ 

Tensions are mounting in Namibia after a controversial extension of presidential and parliamentary elections into the weekend owing to “irregularities” that slowed down voting.

The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) announced on Friday that polling stations that should have closed two days earlier, would remain open until Saturday night, admitting to “logistical” failures, including a shortage of ballot papers and overheating electronic tablets used to register voters, which left them standing in queues for hours.

The opposition Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) party, which hopes to end 34 years of rule by the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), protested against the new extension but urged voters to cast their ballots.

“Regrettably, there has been a multitude of irregularities,” said IPC presidential candidate Panduleni Itula. But, he added, there was “no other alternative than for the citizens to carry out what is proposed by the [ECN] to its conclusion”.

He is standing against Swapo’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, currently the vice president, who would become the mineral-rich country’s first female leader if she wins.

Nangombe Shitaleni, a registered voter waiting in a line at the Okandjengedi community centre polling station in northern Namibia, said on Friday that he had returned every day to vote, to no avail.

“It’s like you are a mad person,” he said.

People wait to vote in Windhoek, Namibia [Noah Tjijenda/Reuters]

Namibia is a former German colony that came under South African control after World War I, its Black majority later subjected to apartheid policies.

Swapo was at the forefront of the country’s fight for freedom and has dominated politics since independence in 1990.

But Nandi-Ndaitwah’s bid for the presidency faces pushback from a youthful population frustrated by a lack of opportunities. The World Bank rates Namibia as an upper-middle-income country, but it is blighted by huge inequality.

Observers ask whether Swapo might suffer the same fate as other parties in Southern Africa that liberated their nations from colonial or white minority rule, but have been rejected by voters this year.

Namibia’s electoral issues come as Mozambique is engulfed in violent unrest after the long-ruling Frelimo party was declared the winner of an election in October, prompting claims of vote rigging and causing continuing violent protests against the party.