WINDHOEK - Namibia's vice president was among the first voters in elections on Wednesday that could see her become the desert nation's first woman leader, even as her ruling SWAPO party faces a strong challenge to its 34-year grip on power.
Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, a 72-year-old veteran of the South West Africa People's Organisation, cast her ballot in the capital Windhoek as polls opened at 7am.
She urged the country's roughly 1.5 million registered voters to do the same before polls close at 9pm.
The vote "will have an impact for the next five years in your life and in the life of every Namibian and any person who's visiting this country," said the candidate popularly known as NNN.
SWAPO has governed the mineral-rich country since independence in 1990 but, amid complaints about high unemployment and enduring inequalities, Nandi-Ndaitwah could be forced into a second-round run-off if she fails to garner at least half the vote.
Nandi-Ndaitwah has four main challengers including Panduleni Itula, a former dentist and lawyer who founded the Independent Patriots for Change party in 2020.
Itula took 29 percent of votes in the 2019 elections, losing to SWAPO leader Hage Geingob, who garnered 56 percent of votes.
Despite the loss, his performance was remarkable considering Geingob, who died in February, took almost 87 percent five years earlier.