Namibia’s President Geingob set to win second term as opposition cries foul

Namibia’s President Hage Geingob is set for a second term in office after the National Election Commission announced provisional results with more than 85 percent of votes counted. But two opposition parties are calling fraud.

Namibian President Hage Geingob, goes to the polls to vote on Wednesday G. GUERCIA/AFP

Geingob is leading with 57 percent of the vote, a sharp downturn from the last presidential elections, where he swept the polls with 87 percent of the vote. His closest challenger, Dr Panduleni Itula has 28 percent of the vote.

Itula is a member of Geingob’s SWAPO, South West Africa People's Organisation party, but ran as an independent. According to a tweet from The Namibian national paper, Itula is holding a crisis meeting to discuss the results.

An urgent electoral crisis meeting called by the independent presidential candidate, Panduleni Itula is underway at an unknown location. https://t.co/JlXQPUxYgN pic.twitter.com/AAwyFf1tHM

  The Namibian (@TheNamibian) November 30, 2019

Both Itula and Bernadus Swartbooi, the leader of the Landless People’s Movement (LPM) have separately said this poll was fraudulent.

"Votes were being increased in favour of SWAPO and Geingob and reduced for other candidates," reportedly said Swartbooi in The Namibian.

SWAPO has ruled the country since its independence from South Africa in 1990.

The ruling party also leads in the National Assembly with 66 percent of the vote.

Delays in the counting for the presidential and parliamentary elections have frustrated Namibians. In the last elections, in 2014, it was the first time an African country used electronic voting. Provisional results were announced just one day later.

Opposition candidate Itula said that not using paper ballots had created more possibilities for fraud. He had originally tried to ban the voting machines, but his demand was thrown out by the electoral tribunal.

Some 1.3 million people registered to vote for this election, but the electoral commission said it had received less than 800,000 votes.