WINDHOEK—Four Namibian opposition parties including the main challenger to the ruling SWAPO complained on Sunday of voting irregularities in the country's two-day presidential and parliamentary elections.
First results were expected to be known about midday, with President Hifikepunye Pohamba and his South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) forecast to win another five-year term.
The opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), expected to become the official opposition, said some ballot papers lacked an identification stamp, making them invalid, and the ink identifying voters was removable in some cases, allowing people to vote twice.
"There are a lot of people who have been deprived of their right to cast their votes by the recklessness of the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN)," Jesaya Nyamu, secretary-general of the RDP, told Reuters.
Three other parties, the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, the Republican Party of Namibia and the South West Africa National Union also raised concerns about irregularities and SWAPO's youth league asked the ECN to investigate.
"The process is going to be credible because there are observers here but the irregularities still need to be addressed. SWAPO will win, but we want to win credibly," youth league leader Elijah Ngurare told Reuters.
The electoral commission was meeting to discuss the matter on Sunday.
"The politics are over, let's count the votes now," ECN director Moses Ndjarakana said.
Counting began after the more than 3,000 polls closed at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) on Saturday and the ECN said final results might not be available until Wednesday. About 1.18 million people are registered to vote.
Poverty, Unemployment
Lying between economic powerhouse South Africa and oil-producing Angola, resource-rich Namibia has enjoyed a long period of political and economic prosperity that has made its 2.2 million people the envy of many in Africa.
It is an important diamond exporter and is responsible for 10 percent of the world's uranium output.
However, the campaign was dominated by unemployment, poverty and the lack of improvement in health, education and sanitation services, aggravated by the global economic downturn.
The economy is expected to contract by 0.6 percent in 2009, before recovering in 2010 when commodity prices and mining output. are expected to rise.
Opposition parties and voters alike said they supported SWAPO's programmes, but that implementation has been very slow.
Pohamba and SWAPO have faced a strong challenge from the RDP, which broke away from SWAPO in 2007 and is expected to try to ensure government transparency and accountability.
In the past, Namibia's political scene has been dominated by smaller opposition parties, which failed to shake the hold of SWAPO, the guerrilla movement that led the country to independence in 1990.
The RDP could eat into the two-thirds majority in parliament SWAPO has held since 1995, which enables it to alter the constitution.
The ECN said that for the first time votes would be counted at the polling stations and results would be posted locally to ensure transparency and curtail any election rigging, as alleged by opposition parties allege in 2004. A recount of the votes confirmed SWAPO as the winner, with 55 of the 72 seats.
Fourteen parties were contesting the election this year and 12 presidential candidates were listed.
