Namibian President Sam Nujoma’s chosen successor, Hifikepunye Pohamba, held a commanding lead on Thursday as first results of elections in the Southern African country of Namibia were released.
Namibians voted on Monday and Tuesday to choose a new leader to fill the shoes of founding president and liberation hero Nujoma, and to elect MPs.
”In all the constituencies we have counted so far, except for one, Minister Pohamba has won with a substantial majority, some with thousands ahead and others with hundreds,” said the director of the electoral commission, Philemon Kanime.
”But the counting is going slow,” Kanime said, adding that by 1pm, results from only 12 constituencies out of a total of 102 had been counted.
”We have not even yet received results from anywhere in Windhoek,” Kanime said.
Pohamba (69) is considered a shoo-in for the presidency and the ruling South West Africa People’s Organisation (Swapo) is expected to garner a strong majority in Parliament.
Kanime said election officials predicted a turnout of as high as 70%, despite a lacklustre campaign. In 1999, voter turnout was about 63%.
The elections, the third since Namibia’s 1990 independence from South African apartheid rule, were a milestone as they marked the departure of Nujoma, a pivotal figure in Namibian politics for five decades.
Nujoma is to step down in March, although he will retain the powerful post of Swapo party president until 2007.
The 75-year-old president manoeuvred to install Pohamba, who is currently the Lands Minister, as his successor at a Swapo party congress in May.
In an interview on Tuesday, Pohamba said he plans to forge ahead with the expropriation of white farmers, but pledged to hold dialogue to ensure they are as painless as possible.
”What we believe is just talk, talk, talk. If you don’t talk you won’t be able to find a solution. This we have said to ourselves, is the issue, keeping talking one to another,” he said.
Pohamba will be facing one of his biggest tests of leadership with land reform, conscious that he must address fears of a Zimbabwe-style land grab in which thousands of white farms were seized under President Robert Mugabe’s land-reform programme launched in 2000.
About 4 000 farmers, the majority of whom are white, own 44% of Namibia’s arable land, an imbalance the government has vowed to redress with compensation and a peaceful transfer of land ownership.
”No land has been expropriated yet, but letters have been sent, it’s going to happen,” Pohamba said.
The current official opposition Democratic Turnhalle Alliance and newcomer Congress of Democrats are vying for the title of official opposition in the parliamentary vote. — Sapa-AFP