Perspectives #01/2010: Namibia's 2009 Elections

Twenty years into independence, on 27 and 28 November 2009, Namibia experienced its possibly most turbulent Presidential and National Assembly elections yet. Without much surprise, incumbent President Pohamba and his ruling party, the South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo), won a sweeping election victory, maintaining a two-thirds majority in parliament. However, the opposition landscape of the country has undergone a momentous shift – the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), new kid on the block and breakaway from Swapo, emerged as the new official opposition. While the RDP was not able to eat into Swapo support, backing for older opposition parties such as the Congress of Democrats (CoD) and the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA) was cut in half.

The atmosphere during the lead-up to the general elections of 2009 was tense. Namibia, which widely has been considered a democracy with a political culture that is fairly open and tolerant, witnessed acrimonious and vicious attacks between supporters of the RDP and Swapo as well as reports of disrupted meetings and allegations of voter intimidation. The authoritarian tendencies of the political hegemon Swapo have become more visible than ever before.

Also, the conduct of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) has left a bitter aftertaste. A controversy over the legality and correctness of the voter’s roll and the registration of voters, as well as the delays in counting and announcing election results, have led local media and some civil society organisations to question its competence in ensuring a free, fair and transparent election process. Finally, eight opposition parties did not accept the election results and took the ECN to court for contravening the election law. However no court ruling – correction of the results or new elections – will topple the absolute majority of the ruling party.

Meanwhile, the observer missions of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the African Union (AU) were quick to praise the elections as free and fair, although some recommendations were made to improve the election process. More critical was the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) Observer Mission. While stating that the elections were conducted well, PAP observers clearly stressed their concerns about a number of irregularities such as the time lag in announcing election results and the skewed pre-election coverage of political parties.

This issue of Perspectives offers some reflection on these and other issues around Namibia’s fourth general election since independence.

In the first article, Henning Melber analyses the 2009 election results and points out some worrying political trends which are visible. He concludes that the next five years might prove to be decisive in terms of Namibia’s political culture. Melber suggests that the ruling party will have to make the choice between either leading the country into authoritarian rule or transforming it into a truly peaceful, tolerant and democratic society.

Women constitute 51% of the population and 52% of the electorate in Namibia. However, the 2009 election resulted in women representation of only 22% in parliament, dropping from 25% in 2004. In the second article, Liz Frank discusses the question of how this is possible in a democratic state with a progressive constitution and national gender policy that has been among the first to sign new international agreements promoting women’s full equality and rights.

While election campaigns can make a positive contribution to the democratic system by mobilising people to vote through the presentation of persuasive and credible messages, they can also harm the democratic political culture by engaging in negative campaigning which reinforces public cynicism and apathy for political processes. In the third article of this issue, Phanuel Kaapama sheds light on the various electioneering tools used by the competing parties, their efforts to reach out to various constituencies, the electoral political environment, and finally the state of paralysis engulfing the political opposition.

Over the last one and a half decades domestic and international election observers have been deployed in young democracies across Africa to promote openness and improve the credibility of elections. In Namibia a number of civil society organisations formed a domestic observation capacity that aimed to contribute to a transparent, fair, lawful and balanced election process. In the last article, John Nakuta describes the experiences and main challenges of the domestic observation programmes and analyses the electoral process in all its phases.

We hope that the collection of views gathered in this issue offers you accessible analyses of the political dynamics in Namibia’s 2009 election.