Hundreds of thousand of Namibians, heeding President Hifikepunye Pohamba’s call to turn out in large numbers, are heading to polling centers nationwide to elect a president and 72 parliamentarians to run the affairs of this southwestern state for the next five years.
The two-day polling ends on Saturday, and the incumbent president, running under the SWAPO party banner, is expected to be reelected with a majority representative in the national assembly when the results are announced on Monday, according to political observers here.
“I would like to appeal to all registered voters to come to the polling stations to cast their votes today (Friday) and Saturday,” the president said.
In his address to the nation, Pohamba also appealed for calm, and peaceful and exemplary conduct at polling stations and during the voting process.
He asked eligible voters and political parties alike to cooperate with the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) and law enforcement agents during the electoral process.
A number of election observer teams, among them representatives of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Parliamentary Forum, Pan African Parliament, SADC Council of NGOs, are in the country playing their part duty.
According to the ECN, there are 1,000 fixed and slightly over 2,000 mobile polling stations throughout the country.
This is the fourth time that Namibians have gone to the polls to elect their national assembly representatives since independence in 1990.
Twelve presidents of political parties are contesting the presidency, while 14 political parties are competing for the 72 National Assembly seats in an election in which close to 971,000 Namibians are eligible to vote.
Source African Press Agency
