Politics of Namibia takes place in a framework of a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Namibia is both head of state and head of government, and of a pluriform multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by both the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in the two chambers of Parliament. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
The history of Namibia has passed through several distinct stages from being colonised in the late nineteenth century to Namibia's independence on 21 March 1990.
The South West Africa People’s Organisation, officially known as the SWAPO Party of Namibia, is a political party and former independence movement in Namibia. It has been the governing party in Namibia since the country achieved independence in 1990. The party continues to be dominated in number and influence by the Ovambo ethnic group.
The Damara, plural Damaran are an ethnic group who make up 8.5% of Namibia's population. They speak the Khoekhoe language and the majority live in the northwestern regions of Namibia, however they are also found widely across the rest of the country. They have no known cultural relationship with any of the other ethnicities anywhere else in Africa, and very little is known of their origin. It has been proposed that the Damara are a remnant population of South-Western Africa hunter-gatherers, otherwise only represented by the Cimba, Kwisi, and Kwadi, who adopted the Khoekhoe language of the immigrant Nama people. However, recent genetic studies have found that Damara are closely related to neighbouring Himba and Herero people, consistent with an origin from Bantu speakers who shifted to a different language and culture.
Elections in Namibia determine who holds public political offices in the country. Namibia is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic. It runs direct elections every five years for the position of the president and seats in the National Assembly, and every six years for the Regional Councils and the distribution of seats in local authorities. The National Council is elected indirectly by the constituency councillors of Namibia's 14 regions.
Justus ǀUruhe ǁGaroëb is a Namibian traditional authority leader and politician. He was a staunch opponent of South African rule and led the oppositional Namibia National Front in the late 1970s. He became Gaob (king) of the Damara people in 1982 and founded the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1989.
The Popular Democratic Movement (PDM), formerly the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), is an amalgamation of political parties in Namibia, registered as one singular party for representation purposes. In coalition with the United Democratic Front, it formed the official opposition in Parliament until the parliamentary elections in 2009. The party currently holds 16 seats in the Namibian National Assembly and one seat in the Namibian National Council and is the official opposition. McHenry Venaani is president of the PDM.
The United Democratic Front (UDF) is a political party in Namibia. Justus ǁGaroëb founded the party in 1989 and led it until 2013. He was succeeded by Apius Auchab.
The Damara Christian Democratic Party was a political party in Namibia, initially known as the Damara Action Group. The party was formed in 1978 and led by Theophelus Arend.
The Damara Executive Committee was a political party in Namibia, based amongst the Dama people. DEC was founded by a group of people based in the Damara Tribal Executive Committee (DTEC), which was not a political party as such. DEC soon became dormant, but was revived in 1960 by Josephat Gawanab.
The Namibia People's Liberation Front was an alliance of moderate political parties in Namibia. It was formed in 1978 by the Voice of the People Party, the Damara Executive Committee and the Bondelswarts Council.
Otjiwarongo is a city of 28,000 inhabitants in the Otjozondjupa Region of Namibia. It is the district capital of the Otjiwarongo electoral constituency and also the capital of Otjozondjupa.
Hage Gottfried Geingob is the third and current president of Namibia, in office since 21 March 2015. Geingob was the first Prime Minister of Namibia from 21 March 1990 to 28 August 2002, and served as Prime Minister again from 4 December 2012 to 21 March 2015. Between 2008 and 2012 Geingob served as Minister of Trade and Industry. He is also the current president of the ruling SWAPO Party since his election to the position in November 2017.
Khorixas is a town of 6,000 inhabitants in southern Kunene Region, Namibia. It was the capital of the Damaraland bantustan before Namibia's independence. It is the administrative capital of Khorixas Constituency. Most of the inhabitants are from the Damara ethnic group. The town is located near to an important deposit of petrified wood and the Twyfelfontein valley, known for its rock art.
The Turnhalle Constitutional Conference was a controversial conference held in Windhoek between 1975 and 1977, tasked with the development of a constitution for a self-governed Namibia under South African control. Sponsored by the South African government, the Turnhalle Conference laid the framework for the government of South West Africa from 1977 to independence in 1989.
Chief Frans Migub ǀGoagoseb is a Namibian politician and Damara leader. He is the party leader of the Namibian Democratic Movement for Change and was the party's candidate for president in the 2009 general election. In that election, ǀGoagoseb received 1,760 votes, placing eleventh out of twelve candidates for president. Only Attie Beukes of the Communist Party of Namibia received fewer votes than ǀGoagoseb.
The Damara Council was a political party in Damaraland, a Bantustan in South West Africa. In 1977 a breakaway faction joined the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance (DTA), while in 1989, the remainder of the DC was one of 8 political parties which formed the United Democratic Front. 6 of the 8 parties were ethnically affiliated, as they had taken part in the governments of various Bantustans. Since 1989, the UDF has maintained a presence in the National Assembly of Namibia, with Damara-speaking Namibians forming the core of the party.
Advocate Vekuii Reinhard Rukoro is a Namibian lawyer, businessman, and the current Paramount Chief of the Herero people. He also served in Namibia's Parliament and Cabinet, and as attorney-general.
The Owambo Basin is a sedimentary basin located on the Congo Craton in Southern Africa that extends from southern Angola into Namibia and includes the Etosha Pan. It is bound on the southern and western sides by the Damara Belt in Northern Namibia and by the Cubango River to the East. The northern boundary is scientifically disputed, but is currently mapped by most stratigraphers to include southern Angola with the boundary set at the Kunene River. The Owambo Basin is host to two famous regions: Tsumeb, a major Namibian city and site of a formerly active copper mine with exceptional mineralogical variability producing museum quality rare specimens, and Etosha National Park, the largest protected wildlife sanctuary in Namibia centered around Etosha Pan.
