Editing Politics of Namibia (section)

==Political parties and elections==
{{Elect|List of political parties in Namibia|Elections in Namibia}}

Elections were held in 1992, to elect members of 13 newly established Regional Councils, as well as new municipal officials. Two members from each Regional Council serve simultaneously as members of the National Council, the country's second house of Parliament. Nineteen of its members are from the ruling [[SWAPO]] party, and seven are from the [[Democratic Turnhalle Alliance of Namibia|Democratic Turnhalle Alliance]] (DTA). In December 1994, elections were held for the President and the [[National Assembly of Namibia|National Assembly]].

Namibia has about 40 political groups, ranging from modern political parties to traditional groups based on tribal authority. Some represent single tribes or ethnic groups while others encompass several. Most participate in political alliances, some of which are multiracial, with frequently shifting membership.

[[SWAPO]] is the ruling party, and all but one of the new government's first cabinet posts went to SWAPO members. A [[Marxist]]-oriented movement, SWAPO has become less left-wing and now espouses the need for a mixed economy. SWAPO has been a legal political party since its formation and was cautiously active in Namibia, although before implementation of the UN Plan, it was forbidden to hold meetings of more than 20 people, and its leadership was subject to frequent detention. In December 1976, the [[UN General Assembly]] recognised SWAPO as "the sole and authentic representative of the Namibian people," a characterisation other internal parties did not accept.

In the 1999 presidential and parliamentary elections, SWAPO continued its history of political dominance, taking 55 of the 72 Assembly seats, and returning President [[Sam Nujoma]] to the office for his third term. The principal opposition parties are the [[Congress of Democrats]] (CoD) and the [[Democratic Turnhalle Alliance]] (DTA), with each possessing seven seats in the [[National Assembly of Namibia|National Assembly]].

In 2019 [[Hage Geingob]] won the [[2019 Namibian general election|presidential election]] and received a second term as president. His percentage of votes gained, however, dropped significantly from 87% in 2014 to 56% in 2019. While rural areas predominantly supported Geingob, many urban centres voted for the independent candidate, Panduleni Itula, who received 29% of the overall votes. No other candidate achieved a two-digit result. SWAPO, yet again, won a majority of seats in the National Assembly, but closely missed the threshold for a two-thirds majority, which it held since 1994. Consequently, opposition parties also gained seats, most prominently the [[Popular Democratic Movement]] (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), which obtained 16 seats in the National Assembly.<ref name=reduced>{{cite news | url=https://www.namibian.com.na/86045/read/Reduced-victory--Swapo-Geingob-drop-votes | newspaper=[[The Namibian]] | title = Reduced victory ... Swapo, Geingob drop votes | last=Iikela | first=Sakeus | date=2 December 2019 | page=1}}</ref> The PDM's 16.60% vote share is its best electoral performance since the [[1994 Namibian general election|1994 election]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-namibia-election-idUSKBN1Y40OG|title = Incumbent Geingob wins Namibia presidential election with 56.3% of the vote|newspaper = Reuters|date = 30 November 2019}}</ref> On 4 February 2024, President Hage Geingob died and he was immediately succeeded by vice-president [[Nangolo Mbumba]] as new President of Namibia.<ref>{{cite news |title=Hage Geingob death: Namibia's new President Mbumba sworn-in hours after predecessor dies |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68196412 |date=4 February 2024}}</ref>

On 21 March 2025, [[Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah]] was sworn in as Namibia's first female president. She had won November's [[2024 Namibian general election|election]] with a 58% share of the vote as the candidate of the ruling South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo).<ref>{{cite news |title=Namibia swears in first female president Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly8ln5g12wo |work=www.bbc.com |date=21 March 2025}}</ref>

===2019 presidential election===
{| class=wikitable style=text-align:right
!Candidate
!Party
!Votes
!%
|-
|align=left|[[Hage Geingob]]||align=left|[[SWAPO]]||464,703||56.3
|-
|align=left|[[Panduleni Itula]]||align=left|Independent||242,657||29.4
|-
|align=left|[[McHenry Venaani]]||align=left|[[Popular Democratic Movement]]||43,959||5.3
|-
|align=left|[[Bernadus Swartbooi]]||align=left|[[Landless People's Movement (Namibia)|Landless People's Movement]]||22,542||2.7
|-
|align=left|Apius Auchab||align=left|[[United Democratic Front (Namibia)|United Democratic Front]]||22,115||2.7
|-
|align=left|[[Esther Muinjangue]]||align=left|[[National Unity Democratic Organisation]]||12,039||1.5
|-
|align=left|[[Tangeni Iiyambo]]||align=left|[[SWANU]]||5,959||0.7
|-
|align=left|[[Henk Mudge]]||align=left|[[Republican Party (Namibia)|Republican Party]]||4,379||0.5
|-
|align=left|[[Mike Kavekotora]]||align=left|[[Rally for Democracy and Progress (Namibia)|Rally for Democracy and Progress]]||3,515||0.4
|-
|align=left|[[Ignatius Shixwameni]]||align=left|[[All People's Party (Namibia)|All People's Party]]||3,304||0.4
|-
|align=left|Jan Mukwilongo||align=left|[[Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters]]||1,026||0.1
|-
|align=left colspan=2|Invalid/blank votes||0||–
|-
|align=left colspan=2|'''Total'''||'''826,198'''||'''100'''
|-
|align=left colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||1,358,468||60.8
|-
|align=left colspan=4|Source: [https://www.ecn.na/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Final-Election-Results-Announcement-Speech-ECN-Chair-30-Nov-2019.pdf ECN]
|}

===2019 parliamentary election===

{| class=wikitable style=text-align:right
!colspan=2|Party
!Votes
!%
!Seats
!+/–
|-
|bgcolor=#F0001C| ||align=left|[[SWAPO]]||536,861||65.45||63||–14
|-
|bgcolor=#000080| ||align=left|[[Popular Democratic Movement]]||136,576||16.65||16||+11
|-
|bgcolor=#FC7B2C| ||align=left|[[Landless People's Movement (Namibia)|Landless People's Movement]]||38,956||4.75||4||New
|-
|bgcolor=#0B4000| ||align=left|[[National Unity Democratic Organisation]]|||16,066||1.96||2||0
|-
|bgcolor=#000000| ||align=left|[[All People's Party (Namibia)|All People's Party]]||14,664||1.79||2||0
|-
|bgcolor=#314BB2| ||align=left|[[United Democratic Front (Namibia)|United Democratic Front]]||14,644||1.79||2||0
|-
|bgcolor=#FFF100| ||align=left|[[Republican Party (Namibia)|Republican Party]]||14,546||1.77||2||+1
|-
|bgcolor=red| ||align=left|[[Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters]]||13,580||1.66||2||+2
|-
|bgcolor=#166B37| ||align=left|[[Rally for Democracy and Progress (Namibia)|Rally for Democracy and Progress]]||8,953||1.09||1||–2
|-
|bgcolor=#24B87A| ||align=left|[[Christian Democratic Voice]]||5,841||0.71||1||+1
|-
|bgcolor=#003580| ||align=left|[[SWANU]]||5,330||0.65||1||0
|-
|bgcolor=blue| ||align=left|[[Congress of Democrats]]||4,645||0.57||0||0
|-
|bgcolor=#EEEEEE| ||align=left|[[National Democratic Party (Namibia)|National Democratic Party]]||4,559||0.56||0||0
|-
|bgcolor=darkred| ||align=left|[[Workers Revolutionary Party (Namibia)|Workers Revolutionary Party]]||3,212||0.39||0||–2
|-
|bgcolor=#008000| ||align=left|[[National Patriotic Front (Namibia)|National Patriotic Front]]||1,785||0.22||0||New
|-
|align=left colspan=2|Invalid/blank votes||0||–||–||–
|-
|align=left colspan=2|'''Total'''||'''820,227'''||'''100'''||'''96''' ||'''–'''
|-
|align=left colspan=2|Registered voters/turnout||1,358,468||60.4||–||–
|-
|align=left colspan=6|Source: [https://www.ecn.na/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/Final-Election-Results-Announcement-Speech-ECN-Chair-30-Nov-2019.pdf ECN]
|}