2025 Namibian local and regional elections

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2025 Namibian local and regional elections
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Local and regional elections will be held in Namibia on 26 November 2025 to elect new local and regional councils. [1] The previous round of elections was held in 2020 and won by the ruling SWAPO party.

Contents

Electoral system

Elections for regional councils are held using the first-past-the-post electoral system. Voters in each constituency elect one councillor to represent them on their regional council. Local authority councillors are elected by a system of proportional representation. Local authority candidate lists have affirmative action requirements for women. [2]

In the regional elections, for every of the 121 constituencies of Namibia one individual is elected to serve as constituency councillor and to represent their constituency in the respective regional council. [2] The regional councils in turn select 3 representatives each to serve in the National Council. Local councillors are directly elected through secret ballots (regional elections) by the inhabitants of their constituencies. [3] They occupy a constituency office in the main settlement of their district. However, once elected they keep their full-time job and are expected to run their constituencies after hours. [4] Consequently, they receive allowances rather than salaries, although the remuneration does compare to a mid-range salaried position. [5] Regional councillors are indirectly elected from and by the constituency councillors in each region. Each region sends three of their local councillors to represent their region in the National Council of Namibia. [3]

Local elections determine the population of the village, town, and city councils and have a direct influence on who will become mayor, as this position is elected among all councillors. Contrary to the regional elections, local elections in Namibia are determined by party, not by individual candidate. [2] There are 57 local authorities for which elections are to be conducted.

Election process

A supplementary voter registration, also for citizens that have turned 18 and those who have relocated, was conducted between 4 and 19 August 2025. [1] The elections are to be conducted using paper ballots after the Supreme Court of Namibia ruled in February 2020 that without a paper trail, usage of electronic voting machines (EVMs) in elections contravened the Electoral Act of 2014. [6]

References

  1. 1 2 Namundjembo, Allexer (25 June 2025). "ECN unveils 2025 election roadmap". Windhoek Observer .
  2. 1 2 3 "Government Elections: National, Regional, Local" (PDF). www.lac.org.na. Retrieved 1 December 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Namibia National Council". Inter-Parliamentary Union . Retrieved 14 July 2010.
  4. ↑ Ndeyanale, Eliaser (28 January 2016). "Councillors should be fully recognised politicians". Confidente . p. 5.
  5. ↑ Mbathera, Ester; Iikela, Sakeus (24 February 2021). "Councillor pay hike proposal not sinister – Daniel". The Namibian . p. 3.
  6. ↑ Iikela, Sakeus (23 September 2020). "ECN undecided on discarded EVMs". The Namibian . p. 1.
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