SWAPO dominated the weekend’s local authority polls by acquiring representation on all 50 local authorities countrywide and winning 226 seats.
The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), under former Swapo MP and Cabinet minister Hidipo Hamutenya’s leadership, won 178 fewer seats than the ruling party – 48 councillors on 36 local councils across Namibia.
On the bronze podium, the United Democratic Front (UDF) managed to get 23 local authority councillors elected, while the DTA scraped together 16, Nudo nine, All People’s Party (APP) two and the Rehoboth-based United People’s Movement (UPM) three seats.
The Congress of Democrats (CoD), once the official opposition, only managed to secure two seats.
Drawing close to 73,5 per cent of the Windhoek votes, Swapo eliminated the DTA, CoD and UDF from the city council.
In the capital, the RDP, which managed to win three seats, whereas the DTA and the UDF scraped together a mere 2,7 per cent each.
The ruling party’s success in Windhoek is about 10 percentage points more than its 63,6 per cent share of the vote achieved during the 2004 local authority elections, while the DTA’s support shrank from 5,9 per cent of the total in 2004 to 2,7 per cent and the UDF’s from 3,83 per cent to 2,7 per cent.
At Eenhana in the Ohangwena Region – where the RDP claims Angolans voted fraudulently – the ruling party had a landslide victory of close to 84 per cent of the local authority ballots. The only other party to make it onto the new local authority at Eenhana was the RDP with close to 16 per cent of the votes.
At Ondangwa in the Oshana Region, Swapo’s local authority support dropped slightly from the 2004 elections from 91,5 per cent to 86,2 per cent. The RDP acquired just over 10 per cent of the Ondangwa local authority votes.
Also in the Oshana Region, at Ongwediva, the ruling party’s hold dropped more – from 96,8 per cent in 2004 to 84,5 per cent in 2010. The RDP did better here than at Ondangwa by winning close to 14 per cent of the local authority votes.
At the coast, Swapo was given a run for its money by the Civic Association of Henties Bay. The association captured close to 44 per cent of the local authority votes, while the ruling party got 36,9 per cent. During the 2004 local authority elections, Swapo got 38 per cent of the votes.
Of the Henties Bay residents who cast their votes in the 2010 local elections, the RDP only managed to get 4 per cent.
At Swakopmund, Swapo strengthened its grip by acquiring more than 60 per cent of the votes. During the 2004 polls, it got close to 58 per cent of the votes.
The UDF has dropped to 12 per cent from 16 per cent at Swakopmund in 2004. The RDP, participating in its first local authority elections, got 9 per cent of the Swakopmund votes.
Of the 7 762 votes cast at Walvis Bay, the ruling party got 6 390 (82,3 per cent), while the RDP got a mere 11,6 per cent and the UDF got even less at 3,5 per cent.
In the Caprivi Region, the APP, DTA and RDP jointly flexed their muscles in Katima Mulilo to win 19,51 per cent of the votes against Swapo’s 78,7 per cent. During the 2004 elections, the ruling party got 66,26 per cent of the local authority votes at Katima Mulilo.
