In Namibia, the opposition election challenge is dismissed by the supreme court

The ruling party’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah will take office next month after Namibia’s Supreme Court on Friday rejected an opposition party appeal to the country’s presidential election from the previous year.

The SWAPO party, which has ruled the roughly 3 million-person nation for more than 30 years, won both the November presidential and legislative elections in Southern Africa.

Among other things, opposition parties claimed that the election was faulty and perhaps void because of a multi-day voting extension.

Chief Justice Peter Shivute of Namibia rejected the challenge from the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC), which finished second in the polls, and declared that the decision to extend voting was legal.

In this case, the Landless People’s Movement, another opposition group, joined the IPC.

“Their challenge to the outcome for the 2024 presidential election … fails,” Shivute stated.

Panduleni Itula, the leader of the IPC and last year’s presidential candidate, declared that his party would follow the ruling.

“We are not going to the streets to demonstrate or anything like that,” Itula stated.

On March 21, Nandi-Ndaitwah will take the oath of office as Namibia’s first female president.