OPINION
Namibia Votes into the weekend

Namibia's democracy is alive and kicking up a storm, as the country finds itself in the midst of a tumultuous election. Ups and downs enough to pale a rollercoaster ride in comparison, have characterised this week from Wednesday 27 November 2024, as unprecedented events have touched the lives of everybody in one way or another. Voting day to choose the next president of Namibia, and also the parties whose members will make laws in the national assembly, comes once in every four years. More than 90% of the eligible population registered to vote this year. 

Declared a public holiday, the nation was expected to turn up at polling stations that opened at seven in the morning, and each eligible voter was to cast their vote.  

Turn up they did. 
Some camped at the fixed venues, while others joined the queues from four in the morning to secure that head start. Atypical of Namibia, where 'last-minute.com' is more like a way of life than a colloquial expression, and much less a website that few have ever visited or even heard of. Those peculiar individuals who whet so early were proven to be prophetic, as more conventional approaches were doom to unending frustration. Lines of patient voters grew and stretched out around the corner, down the street or zigzagged down endless corridors where the waiting enjoyed the luxury of shade. 
Chatter and laughter, respectful and good natured, sober minded patriots engaged in pointless conversation while silently trying to make up their minds before having to make their secret X. 

Campaigning and wearing party colours on voting day is frowned upon, so other mundane topics dominate conversation. 
But in many places the queue stopped moving as officials ran into problems with technology; overheating of identification verification machines was an early warning of what was to come. Certain polling stations ran out of ballot papers, causing frustratingly long delays. Some of the unemployed youth recruited and trained to fill many voting official responsibilities were less effective than others. The hours crept by. The sun beat down those unfortunate enough to be stuck in its glare, until in the evening, tired and fed-up, it also sank into obscurity. 

Many youthful first time voters did succumb to their lack of patience and went home, but they were not the only ones. Others came to replace the short-winded and the lines of waiting voters lengthened as the time advanced toward the nine o' clock closing deadline. Voters already in line by nine had to be helped, so many polling officials worked well past midnight, before counting could even begin. Tired and hungry were the minds that had to calculate and do the sums before dawn on Thursday morning, only to be confronted with connectivity failures and more technology hurdles barring the end. 

Meanwhile in Windhoek, at the Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) headquarters, chaos erupted as political parties demanded answers and action. The ECN capitulated and voting has been extended at certain polling stations, with the new deadline set for Saturday. Results from excluded collation-stations trickle in, while voting continues elsewhere. Whether this is all legal, whether incompetence has been weaponised, whether the end result will be acceptable remains to be seen, but one thing is clear, Namibians are in it to win it. In Namibia, for the first time ever, we are going to keep on voting, well into the weekend.