Namibia’s primary opposition birthday celebration has stated it’s going to now not recognise effects from this hour’s common election, the place there were logistical issues and balloting was once prolonged in numerous playgrounds.

In a observation on Saturday, Panduleni Itula, the presidential candidate for the opposition Distant Patriots for Trade (IPC) alleged there have been “glaring and undeniable” electoral malpractices.

He have been aiming to defeat the candidate for the South West Africa Crowd’s Organisation (Swapo), which has been in energy since liberty in 1990.

Swapo’s flagbearer, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, is looking for to turn out to be the rustic’s first feminine president.

Vote casting started on Wednesday however in portions of the rustic endured up till Saturday, following a shortage of poll papers in some playgrounds in addition to malfunctioning technical apparatus.

Namibia is a geographically giant folk with about 3 million nation, round part of whom are registered to vote.

“We shall not, under any circumstances, recognise the outcome of the 2024 election… that is still, in our opinion, illegitimately continuing,” Itula told a press conference on Saturday, while calling for calm.

The IPC has said it will “pursue justice through the courts” and has encouraged people who felt that they had been unable to vote because of mismanagement by the electoral commission to go to the police to make a statement.

Meanwhile, votes are being counted and results in the presidential election from 10 of the 121 constituencies have been announced.

So far, Nandi-Ndaitwah has 48% of the vote to Itula’s 30%. A candidate needs more than half the ballots cast in order to win in the first round, otherwise there will be a second-round run-off.

Swapo, which led the liberation struggle against apartheid South Africa, has dominated politics in the country for 34 years.

But its popularity has been on the wane and in the last election in 2019 its vote share in the presidential poll fell below 60% for the first time.

It is facing challenges similar to other liberation movements in the region, which saw South Africa’s African National Congress lose its outright parliamentary majority in May and the Botswana Democratic Party kicked out of power after nearly six decades following last month’s election.

Spare reporting via Frauke Jensen