{"id":52316,"date":"2019-11-27T12:12:54","date_gmt":"2019-11-27T04:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=52316"},"modified":"2019-11-27T12:12:56","modified_gmt":"2019-11-27T04:12:56","slug":"nov-27-elections-namibias-ruling-party-faces-unexpectedly-challenging-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=52316","title":{"rendered":"Nov 27 elections: Namibia\u2019s ruling party faces unexpectedly challenging vote"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/storage.googleapis.com\/afs-prod\/media\/b124614c2b6f478eb8488fd808e43625\/1000.jpeg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>WINDHOEK, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Namibia\u2019s registered 1.3 million voters go to the polls Wednesday in a general election that promises to be far removed from the overwhelming victories enjoyed by former liberation movement SWAPO since independence in the resource-rich southern African country in 1990.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Foreign interests abound in this sparsely populated nation of about 2.5 million people, with sometimes damaging results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two cabinet ministers resigned this month after Iceland\u2019s biggest seafood company, Samherji, was accused of paying bribes to Namibian politicians and officials for access to Namibia\u2019s fishing quota, a key economic resource.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The ruling SWAPO has been shaken by the scandal and by the weakening economy, which has shed thousands of jobs. Some 46% of youth are unemployed. Meanwhile more than 700,000 people have registered for drought relief as hunger grows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the last election, in 2014, SWAPO won 80% percent of the vote, its highest share ever, while President Hage Geingob won 87% of the presidential vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This time the 78-year-old Geingob faces an unexpected challenge in Dr. Panduleni Itula, a dentist. Itula is standing as an independent candidate but retains his SWAPO membership.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other candidates include the official opposition Popular Democratic Movement, led by 42-year-old McHenry Venaani. It has largely been campaigning around the issue of SWAPO\u2019s two-thirds majority in parliament, which Venaani says has fueled impunity and graft.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Landless People\u2019s Movement led by Bernadus Swartbooi has focused on land expropriation in Namibia, which has one of the world\u2019s highest inequality rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Provisional yet unconfirmed counts from special voting that took place at diplomatic missions and for members of the armed forces show Geingob and Itula neck-and-neck in the presidential race, while SWAPO is ahead in the National Assembly race.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The election will include more than 400,000 voters who were born in or after Namibia gained its independence from South Africa. &#8212; NNN-AGENCIES<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WINDHOEK, Nov 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) &#8212; Namibia\u2019s registered 1.3 million voters go to the polls Wednesday in a general election that promises to be far removed from the overwhelming victories enjoyed by former liberation movement SWAPO since independence in the resource-rich southern African country in 1990. Foreign interests abound in this sparsely populated nation of about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52316"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=52316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52316\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=52316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=52316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=52316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}