Namibians vote on 20 years of SWAPO rule (Roundup)

Nov 27, 2009, 21:20 GMT

Windhoek - Voting was proceeding smoothly Friday in Namibia's fifth democratic presidential and parliamentary elections and fourth since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

Two days of voting in both elections began across the south-west African desert nation of around 2 million people at 7 am (0500 GMT) and was due to close at 9 pm (1900 GMT) before reopening on Saturday.

Long queues formed outside polling stations from dawn, with many people opting to vote early to avoid the hot midday sun, as is customary in African elections.

A total of 14 parties are contesting 78 seats in the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, which has been dominated since independence by the South West African People's Organization (SWAPO).

Incumbent president and SWAPO leader Hifikepunye Pohamba has 11 rivals in the presidential poll.

Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) chief Moses Ndjarakana said around midday everything was running smoothly, with no major hiccups reported.

Three ECN workers had been arrested in the north of the country for allegedly tampering with ballot boxes.

Around 961,000 Namibians are registered to vote in the election.

SWAPO, which fought a 22-year guerrilla war against apartheid South Africa ending in 1988, a year before the country's first democratic polls, won 55 Assembly seats in the last election five years ago.

The party is expected to easily win re-election over a fragmented opposition, but a new party of dissident SWAPO members is expected to take some votes from SWAPO as well as other opposition parties.

Popular former foreign minister Hidipo Hamutenya broke away from SWAPO in 2007 in protest over what he called the party's 'autocratic' leadership style and formed his own Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP).

On the eve of the poll, SWAPO began legal proceedings against the RDP in a 100-million-Namibian-dollar lawsuit over a remark Hamutenya is alleged to have made, accusing the ECN of rigging elections in SWAPO's favour.

The RDP has promised, if elected, to found a South African-style truth commission to examine past atrocities, including forced disappearances within SWAPO's own ranks during the independence struggle and a state crackdown on the northern border area with Angola in the 1990s, during Angola's civil war.

Namibia itself is a stable, but extremely poor country, that lives off mining, fishing, agriculture and tourism.

Some 28 per cent of Namibians live on less than 2 Namibian dollars (around 30 US cents) a day and six out of 10 young people are estimated to be unemployed.

Results of the election are expected on December 4.