Counting of the ballot papers at the seventh Swapo Congress was completed in the early hours of Monday.

The spokesperson of the Swapo Congress National Committee, Audrin Mathe, told Nampa on Monday the results of the voting for the party’s new leadership would be out in the next few hours.

The congress is electing the party’s vice president, secretary general and deputy secretary general.

“The process is very thorough and tedious. We are not taking chances to assume that we have done the right thing, we have to make sure that the results tally. We are very comfortable with the pace we are moving at and we are not going to rush it because some people are expecting the results this morning. We will do so when we are ready,” he said.

Before the closing of the polling stations last night, 767 people had voted out of the 796 who were expected to cast their votes.

Reports had it that some delegates lost their identification documents and were given 20 minutes to find the documents, otherwise they would not be allowed to vote.

Mathe indicated that that figure had increased, but he could not provide the exact number of delegates who eventually voted.

He however indicated that he was happy with the turnout, which he described as “very high.”

He further called on Namibians to be patient while waiting for the results.

“We have waited for five years to come to this day, there is no reason that we cannot wait for five hours to get the results,” said Mathe.

Prime Minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah; and Minister of Environment Pohamba Shifeta are the candidates for the vice president position.

Those standing for the position of secretary general are the incumbent, Sophia Shaningwa, and Armas Amukwiyu.

Swapo legislator Evelyn Nawases-Taeyele, former environment and tourism minister, Uahekua Herunga, and the party’s regional coordinator in Kavango West, David Hamutenya are standing for the position of deputy secretary general.

Source: The Namibian Press Agency