NAMIBIA ELECTS FIRST FEMALE PRESIDENT

It’s official! Namibia has elected its first female president.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won with 57% of the votes calculated by the country’s electoral commission.

The 72-year-old is the leader of the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO). She was promoted to president after then-president Hage Geingov died while in office.

SWAPO has been the ruling party since the country gained independence from South Africa in 1990.

Election officials decided to extend voting until Saturday because of several technical problems. Opposition parties raised concerns when shortages of ballot papers were reported, but didn’t insist on the extension.

The opposition parties have since rejected the results because they say the extension was illegal. Together, they’ve pledged to challenge the results in court.

Meanwhile, president-elect Nandi-Ndaitwah said, “The Namibian nation has voted for peace and stability”.

Al Jazeera reports that she got her start in politics by participating in the country’s underground independence movement in the 1970s. She returned from the UK to join parliament in 1990 and served as minister with several portfolios over the years.

Image credit: The New Times