Justicia Shipena
The Electoral Commission of Namibia (ECN) says it has done its part to educate voters to vote in the regional and local authority elections.
ECN chairperson Elsie Nghikembua said the commission carried out extensive civic and voter education in all constituencies ahead of the polls.
This comes after observations from Wednesday’s regional and local authority elections showed low voter turnout.
“So I can say with confidence that we have done our part,” she said.
Nghikembua said each constituency had a voter education officer working daily with communities. She said the Commission started with broader civic education and later focused on voter education as the elections neared. Despite these efforts, she noted that low turnout has been a long-standing trend.
“The historical trend of this election has been that there has always been low voter turnout. I think the exception was probably in 1992,” she said.
Turnout in 2020 stood at 38%, and the Commission hoped for an improvement this year. Final figures are still being compiled. “Let us see how these statistics are going to be,” she said.
Nghikembua said voter apathy cannot be placed on the Commission alone. She said the country must understand why presidential and National Assembly elections attract higher participation while regional and local authority elections draw fewer voters. “As a nation, we need to collectively find out what are the reasons,” she said.
She said low turnout affects the entire system. “Of course it is. And it should be a concern to all of us,” she said. She called for shared responsibility. “All of us have a role to play. Whether it is the media, the political parties, or the civil society organisations, everybody has a responsibility,” she said.
When asked by the Windhoek Observer how much the ECN spent on voter education, the Commission said it allocated N$26 million for civic and voter education in the 2025\2026 financial year. This was confirmed by Zenia Klazen, the ECN’s director of operations.
Two weeks before the elections, the ECN said it expected higher turnout after years of decline.
ECN’s chief electoral and referenda officer Peter Shaama at that time noted that participation in these elections has long been low, with only 38.3% and 43.2% recorded in 2020, down from 82.3% in 1992.
A total of 1.5 million voters registered to vote in this year’s election.
