OTJINENE – Nudo emerged as the overall winner in the Otjinene local authority election, winning three seats with 740 votes out of 1 430 total votes cast at the eastern village on Friday.
Swapo won two seats with 520 votes, while the DTA got 124 votes and Swanu 46 votes, not enough to get them seats on the local authority.
This means Nudo’s Venaani Ruth Katjatenja, Alfeus Kauta and Festus Toromba are the councillors for the Otjinene local authority, with Swapo’s Assaria Tjingaete and Batseba Kamuhenune.
Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) director of elections, Professor Isaacs declared the election “absolutely successful”.
“Political agents have been there from 07:00 with patience. We are also thankful to the police force for maintaining peace, transporting (election) material and taking care of the electronic voting machines (EVMs’),” he beamed, adding that the process was very remarkable and there were no complaints.
“In the past we could not achieve what we achieved today,” he said.
Nudo’s constituency administrator, Mbamunondjamo Kaahangoro in Otjinene said they were happy with the election results. “We are happy although we anticipated four seats,” he said on Friday night amid celebrations at the Nudo office and in the streets where hundreds of supporters chanted slogans.
Kaahangoro said many people did not vote because the day was wrong for voting as there were many other activities, such as funerals, while others went away as it was the end of the month. He also said that voter education was not rolled out fully and some voters had difficulty using the EVMs.
“For national elections, they must make sure that voter education is done thoroughly,” he added.
President of the DTA, McHenry Venaani, said the election went fairly well and congratulated the winning parties, Nudo and Swapo. He said that it was to be expected especially in an area where tribal politics play a dominant role, which would not necessarily reflect that they would lead in the national elections.
“This is a Nudo regional stronghold, but not an electoral victory nationally,” said Venaani.
Assaria Tjingaete, Swapo’s new councillor for the local authority, said that the process went very smoothly but his party struggled because many of their members were allegedly transported out of Otjinene and they had to work hard to bring them back.
A total number of 1 805 registered to vote in Otjinene, which means that 79 percent of registered voters went to the polls.