Namibia Votes, part 2

Line of people waiting to vote

  So, Friday was the election here in Namibia. We now know that SWAPO and Hage Geingob, as expected, did quite well. According to New Era, roughly 1.2 million votes were cast for 516 female and 623 male candidates from 16 parties fighting for 104 seats in the National Assembly. With roughly 41% of votes verified, Hage Geingob is sitting at over 80% in his quest to be the next president of Namibia, and SWAPO looks to have a major majority of National Assembly seats, in the mid-to-high 70s% range.

  Feel free to keep yourself updated on the exact numbers, but that's not what this post is about. What I am here to write about is the election day itself. But, I will start the night before. Thursday was Thanksgiving, as most of you know. Taylor, Den, and I decided to treat ourselves to a little dinner at the local lodge, and afterwards hit a local bar for a couple drinks. A number of people were wearing SWAPO-related articles of clothes, chanting slogans in the bar. Two cars, one with a UDF flag, the other with SWAPO colors, were parked out front, and were loading up to drive around rallying last-second support. For much of the night, I was hearing the horns of these "roving rallies".

My co-worker waiting to make her voice heard

  Friday morning, I was awoken by the sounds of the people lining up to vote. After making coffee, I made my way outside with my camera, just to get a glimpse. The line was long, easily over 50 people, and this was before the polls had even opened. By later in the day, it would get longer. It didn't help that they moved slowly, as the new voting machines took some getting used to (in fact, the voters themselves had to sit with election officials, who would help them work the machines, unlike the private and completely secret method of the States). A few entrepreneurs took advantage of the heat, selling ice pops (frozen sandwich bags of Oros) for N$1 each, people chatted, there were chairs. Unfortunately, we had no water, so there were no toilets for those waiting. As they would see me, various co-workers and friends would call me over, we'd chat a bit about what elections in the US are like, about the weather, and about the upcoming festive season. It was actually rather calm and friendly.

  Of course, it wouldn't stay that way. As I sit in my flat, 2 days later, the SWAPO victory celebration is going on. Cars speeding around, blasting music, swerving all over the road, honking their horns, flags flying, people chanting. A number of people have tried to sell me all their homemade SWAPO swag. During my brief trip to a bar last night (still no water, so I needed to borrow their bathroom), I was greeted by revelers.

Den

  So, what else did I do Friday? After all, I wasn't voting, and didn't plan to just sit in my flat all day. Well, around 11, I took my guitar and went over to my host family's place for a couple hours to play with the kids and hang out. Around 2, I left and stopped at the gas station for a meat pie, before returning to my flat for a short nap (those kids tire me out). And, in the evening, Taylor, Den, and I had a little picnic and watched the sunset. Overall, it was a pretty nice day.

  So, one question you may be asking is "how did the electronic voting go over?" Well, I obviously can't say for sure. For the most part, the people I talked to had no issue. It did seem take some of the privacy from voting, though not having been here for past elections, I can't say how secret those ballots were. One of the big issues was the time. New Era and The Namibian were posting polling picture pics on their Facebook pages, and from what I could make out, it seems voting went long past when it was supposed to end, possibly even until the next morning. Of course, this was the first time electronic ballots were used, so it isn't too much of a surprise that there were some hiccups. The Election Commission is considering moving away from one-day voting in the future to help with the lines.




  Now, while my personal experience ended up being quite pleasant, there were a few issues. The Namibian posted pictures of SWAPO flags being flown over polling stations, and there were some issues with people being drunk. For fuller coverage of these incidents, I highly recommend checking out the Facebook pages for The Namibian, New Era, and The Sun. There are some excellent photos (far better than my own), and more complete articles than the blurbs I've linked to.

  Overall, I'd say election day here wasn't too different from America. The biggest difference is that because Namibia takes longer to count the votes, you didn't have people huddled around TV watching as the news channels (or John Stewart/Steven Colbert) called each state. Sorry for this post not being particularly deep, but I do hope you found it a little interesting, and maybe even informative.

Votes being cast

Blind Mike, after voting, enjoying an ice

Namibia Votes, part 1

  So, it's election time in Namibia (we even got a mention on the WaPo website). No, this is not going to be a political post (feel free to take a moment to celebrate you're not being subjected to my long-winded views). Instead, I want more to share the culture of elections in Namibia. So, basically, we have presidential elections every 5 years. Our current president, Hifikepunye Pohamba, our second president, is stepping down after 2 terms (he is limited to two terms, but we've seen how well term limits work in other developing democracies). While Namibia is a democratic system on paper, there is no real suspense, as everyone knows SWAPO's candidate, current Prime Minister Hage Geingob, is going to win. Namibia is described as a "one party dominant" democracy. The truth is, it's more of a proto-democracy. Yes, people vote, but the voting is more of a formality, given how much control SWAPO has, and as Samuel Huntington said, you truly become a democracy when you have your second change of power (the so-called "two turnover" test, which is one of the things I actually agree with Huntington on).

  Okay, enough of the boring political science lecture. Seeing as most of you had to Google Namibia the first time I told you I was coming here (it's okay, so did I), I doubt you're interested in taking a class on the politics of Namibia, and even if you were, you probably don't want me to be the teacher. Instead, what you really want to know is what is it like being here for an election, and how it compares to the US. If you want local coverage, feel free to go to my links tab, or be lazy and just click on these links for Namibia's major English language newspapers, New Era, The Namibian, The Namibian Sun, and The Windhoek Observer (okay, maybe not as big a paper as the other 3, but I went to Windhoek for my first VAC meeting last week, and their office was right down the street from the hotel), as well as the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC).

  Now, for my experiences (after all, isn't that what this blog is supposed to be about?). One of Peace Corps' rules is that I am not allowed to engage in local politics. Sure, I may just smile, nod, and pretend to agree with what someone said about a politician in order to avoid a confrontation, or even just give a "Viva SWAPO" or "Viva UDF" when people say it to me in order to avoid conflicts with drunk politicized people (my office is, after all, used to hot party rallies from time-to-time). However, for those of you who have ever been on social media in the days leading up to an election, or who have lived in a very political place, like DC, are aware, it can often be impossible to avoid being sucked into political conversations. A lot of people take the attitude that whether or not you agree with their politics, you should support SWAPO, because they are going to win, so it's better to be on their good side, especially if you work for government in any way (such attitudes make me cry, though blind support for party name is just as bad in the US).

  Rallies remind me a lot of the US. Just not necessarily political rallies in the US. No, it's more the last quarter of a Redskins-Cowboys games. People wear shirts and hats for the party they support, wave flags and banners, chant the party name, sing soccer-style songs, blow whistles, etc. Party support generally comes down to tribal divides, racial divides, and regional divides, with SWAPO, who were the guys who led the war of Independence, being far and away, the biggest party. Another thing you see here is people driving around in open-back bakkies, with party stickers, colors, candidates' faces, and flags adorning them, blasting music out of speakers on the bed. There are signs all over the place with The Honourable Dr. Hage Geingob's face on them in my town (even though UDF has a major presence here). We have a national holiday for the election.

  One interesting thing about this election is I believe this is the first time Namibia will be using the electronic ballots for the election. Some people have voiced concern over corruption with the machines, and it will be interesting to see how people who have never used such technology react to the machines. Right now, my office is being used to train election officials to set up, use, and fix the machines, in case of any issues. Long-term, this is an exciting shift, and I don't really think it will have much impact on results, but I'm curious to see how electronic voting is received in Namibia.

  Instead of actually concluding this post, I'm going to "pause" it. You may have noticed this one is "part 1". Check back next week (or maybe this weekend) for "part 2", which will be my talk of election day itself, as well as kind of the concluding of this post. I will answer such questions of "How were the machines receive?" and "What were the results?" and "What does an American do when he can't vote?" and "Do Namibians get 'I Voted' stickers", among other pressing concerns I am sure are now running through your mind.