Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League Ephraim Nekongo says Namibia could gain valuable insights from the South African electoral process, such as allowing voters to wear party colours when voting.
Nekongo was in South Africa with the Swapo party delegation on invitation from the African National Congress to observe the country’s national and provincial elections that took place on Wednesday.
Nekongo informed Nampa that the elections took place smoothly and peacefully.
“Firstly, I must acknowledge that the atmosphere of the elections has been very calm. We visited many polling stations since the beginning of the elections, from the special voting to Wednesday. And in many of the polling stations that we visited, the situation has been calm; people were in a respectful mood without any fractions,” he said.
Nekongo said one takeaway from the South African election process is that voters can enter the voting booths wearing their party colours.
“One thing that you have to understand is that the dynamic here in South Africa is different from ours in Namibia. For example, you are allowed to come with party regalia to the elections, provided that in the polling booth, you cannot chant your slogans.
We have witnessed party supporters singing their songs outside the polling stations,” he said, adding that members from various political parties were seen mingling without emotions.
“That is one thing we need to learn from our colleagues in South Africa.”
Meanwhile, Nekongo commended the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa for allowing voting to continue beyond the cut-off time of 21h00.
“When the polling stations closed at 20h00, there were still long queues. I think the voters opted to go vote at the last minute. But despite this, the electoral commission here in South Africa ensured that those who were in the queues had voted,” Nekongo said.
-Nampa