Africa-Press – Namibia. Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah was elected as SWAPO’s Vice-President, making her the party’s first female candidate for the 2024 Presidential Elections.
The announcement was made by Legal Practitioner Joshua Kaumbi, who presided over the votes. He revealed that Nandi-Ndaitwah got 421 votes, while her opponents, Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila and Pohamba Shifeta, got 270 and 91 votes respectively.
Nandi-Ndaitwah will take over as SWAPO Party President from President Hage Geingob before the 2024 Presidential Elections.
Geingob already emphasised the historic nature of this election before the SWAPO delegates even casted their votes on Sunday. He reiterated these sentiments again, emphasising that “it’s a historic event that we elected a female”.
“We are making something new that Namibians never had and we are coming to the end of that journey with a result and therefore we now have a female comrade who may take over presidency of SWAPO and also the president of the Republic of Namibia,” Geingob said.
However, while history was made in the vice-presidential race, SWAPO delegates voted to maintain the status quo for the Secretary General position. Sophia Shaningwa will therefore continue to serve as SWAPO Secretary General since she defeated her opponent, Armas Amukwiyu, by 97 votes. Shaningwa got 440 votes and Amukwiyu got 343 votes.
SWAPO delegates also voted between Uahekua Herunga, David Hamutenya and Evelyn !Nawases-Taeyele for the party’s Deputy Secretary General position. Herunga got 363 votes, Hamutenya got 92 votes and !Nawases-Taeyele got 326 votes.
However, Kaumbi explained that none of the deputy secretary general candidates obtained more than 50% of votes. This means that Hamutenya and !Nawases-Taeyele will rerun as candidates until one of them obtains more than 50% of the votes. Kaumbi said that this is in line with the SWAPO Constitution.
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