Swapo’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah faces Panduleni Itula from the IPC

If issues work out as Namibia’s long-time governing celebration hopes, the nation can be electing its first feminine head of state this week.

However a temper of disillusionment with liberation actions in southern Africa, coupled with the anti-incumbency feeling in lots of elements of the world, could pose a menace to what could be an historic achievement.

Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, 72, is the flag-bearer for Swapo, which has led the nation since independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.

Tanzania’s Samia Suluhu Hassan is at present Africa’s solely feminine president, so Nandi-Ndaitwah could be becoming a member of an unique membership if she is victorious.

Her celebration, completely dominant for 3 a long time, noticed a big drop in its help within the final common election. It goes into Wednesday’s vote amid an unemployment charge of 19% – virtually the identical because it was 30 years in the past – troubled authorities funds, questions on corruption and excessive ranges of inequality.

Standing in Nandi-Ndaitwah’s method is her important challenger among the many 14 different candidates – Panduleni Itula of the Impartial Patriots for Change (IPC) celebration.

She can also be up in opposition to a conventional and male-dominated political tradition within the nation.

However she is a trusted chief of this sparsely populated and peaceable nation having served in excessive authorities workplace for 1 / 4 of a century.

“I’ve at all times believed in teamwork, that’s what made me obtain what I’ve achieved,” she has mentioned.

Identified for her hands-on and pragmatic fashion of management, the vice-president can also be fiercely loyal to the celebration, which she joined as a young person.

At 14 she turned a part of the motion resisting rule from South Africa, which had ruled the nation – then often called South West Africa – because the finish of World Conflict One and later launched the racist system of apartheid.

She was recognised for her tenacity and organisational expertise as chief of Swapo’s Youth League, which turned a stepping stone to her political profession, which has included ministerial roles in international affairs, tourism, youngster welfare and knowledge.

She has garnered a wealth of data and expertise that would stand her in good stead ought to she get into the driving seat.

“She appears so smart and candy and type, even in the best way she tries to say all the pieces in such a method that even like me will perceive,” Laimi, a possible voter, informed the BBC within the capital, Windhoek.

“Itula is sort of a new piece of jewelry along with his glasses, his good go well with and his assured stroll, however possibly he blinds you along with his shine,” mentioned her good friend Maria.

Each are younger adults who’ve been unable to seek out jobs.

A educated dentist, Itula, 67, was himself as soon as a Swapo stalwart however was expelled from the celebration in 2020 after runnig as an impartial candidate in opposition to President Hage Geingob within the 2019 ballot.

He had additionally been a youth chief and spent a while in jail earlier than going into exile within the UK within the early Eighties. He returned to Namibia in 2013.

Six years later, he charismatically got here crashing into the entrance row of Namibian politics, difficult Geingob within the presidential election after saying the Swapo course of for selecting its candidate was flawed.

Itula’s intervention in that election led to Swapo getting its lowest ever share – 56% – within the presidential election and likewise dropping its two-thirds majority in parliament.

As somebody who had knowledgeable life outdoors politics, he has an enchantment to the 50% of the 1.5 million voters who’re underneath the age of 35, lots of whom need financial change, a job or a measurable increase to their incomes.

His daring and at instances brash fashion, rejecting the extra staid political rhetoric of Nandi-Ndaitwah, has seen him win help amongst enterprise individuals and the rising city intelligentsia.

However whereas Itula is fast off the mark and eloquent, the vice-president chooses her phrases properly, and speaks slowly and intentionally.

Nandi-Ndaitwah seeks concord and teamwork, emphasising neighborhood, ardour and care, and as such, reaches proper right down to the grass roots.

And because the first lady with an opportunity of turning into the nation’s president, she carries the hope of some ladies who need a change from the patriarchal society.

Nevertheless, Nandi-Ndaitwah represents the “tried and trusted” old skool of Namibia’s liberation battle, whereas Itula represents the attainable “wind of change” in a political panorama needing a facelift.

Based on political analyst Henning Melber, the shut rivalry between the 2 main candidates might imply that the presidential election will go into an unprecedented second spherical run-off, which is required if no-one will get greater than half of the votes solid.

In neighbouring South Africa, the African Nationwide Congress, in energy since 1994, was pressured right into a coalition following Might’s common election. Whereas in Botswana – simply to the east – the Botswana Democratic Celebration, dominant for practically six a long time, crashed to a humiliating defeat on the finish of final month.

Swapo needs to keep away from the identical destiny.

The winner on Wednesday would be the candidate who may be most trusted on points equivalent to youth unemployment, corruption, well being care, schooling and infrastructure enchancment, whereas additionally with the ability to bolster the financial system.

This might want to occur with out having to dump the nation’s huge pure sources to international bidders – equivalent to off-shore gasoline in addition to lithium and different important metals.

Itula’s IPC was not a part of the elections in 2019, however has carried out strongly in native elections since then and has the looks of a reputable political different. It has received reward for the best way it has run some native governments.

Nandi-Ndaitwah’s greatest asset could also be that she is, as Namibian diplomat Tuliameni Kalomoh as soon as acknowledged, seen as “incorruptible, each morally and materially”.