Namibia has voted in its first female president, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, following disputed elections last week.
Tarnished by technical glitches that forced a three-day extension for voting to take place, the opposition has rejected it, calling the election illegal. They say the glitches were a deliberate attempt to frustrate voters.
Nandi-Ndaitwah, from the governing South West Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO), won with 57% of the vote, defying predictions that she might be forced into a runoff.
“The Namibian nation has voted for peace and stability,” Nandi-Ndaitwah said after being declared president-elect.
72-year-old Nandi-Ndaitwah previously worked as the country’s foreign minister, and is well known, both at home and abroad.
Her party held on marginally to its parliamentary majority and extended its decades-long rule over the country.
SWAPO has been in power for the past 34 years, ever since it gained independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990.
Source: DW
