Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
Something unexpected finally happened in an election in Namibia: The South West Africa People’s Organisation party, or SWAPO, which has dominated Namibian politics since the country’s independence in 1990, stumbled. Incumbent President Hage Geingob still secured a second term in last week’s vote, but the party lost its parliamentary supermajority, perhaps heralding a new and more competitive political landscape.
Geingob’s administration was hobbled by a number of problems, including an economy that hasn’t been growing since 2016 and wealth inequality that is among the worst in the world. There was also the revelation of a bribery scandal that landed just before the election, involving allegations that government ministers had received at least $10 million from an Icelandic company in exchange for fishing rights.