Namibia’s members of the 7th parliament were sworn in Friday in Windhoek ahead of president Hage Geingob’s inauguration on Saturday.
The members from 11 parties also elected the National Assembly speaker and the deputy speaker.
The 96 members were sworn in small groups of 10 to avoid close contact during this time of COVID-19.
There was a bid by the opposition to elect a member of the opposition UDF party Dudu Murorua as the speaker of the National Assembly but this failed when Swapo’s choice Prof. Peter Katjavivi was re-elected.
Prof Katjavivi was the speaker from 2015. His deputy Loide Kasingo was also re-elected after she beat PDM’s Elma Dienda to the post.
The 7th parliament could be one of Namibia’s most interesting because of some radical new members from smaller parties such as the Landless People’s Movement and the Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters – a replica of Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.
Geingob’s inauguration that was supposed to have been held concurrently with the 30th independence was reduced to a low-key event after Namibia confirmed two coronavirus cases last Saturday.
The independence celebrations were banned as one of the ways of curbing the spread of the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, Geingob declared a state of emergency against the coronavirus and ordered that gatherings should not have more than 50 people.
The parties in the 7th parliament
SWAPO | 536,861 | 65.45 | 63 | –14 | |
Popular Democratic Movement | 136,576 | 16.65 | 16 | +11 | |
Landless People’s Movement | 38,956 | 4.75 | 4 | New | |
National Unity Democratic Organisation | 16,066 | 1.96 | 2 | 0 | |
All People’s Party | 14,664 | 1.79 | 2 | 0 | |
United Democratic Front | 14,644 | 1.79 | 2 | 0 | |
Republican Party | 14,546 | 1.77 | 2 | +1 | |
Namibian Economic Freedom Fighters | 13,580 | 1.66 | 2 | +2 | |
Rally for Democracy and Progress | 8,953 | 1.09 | 1 | –2 | |
Christian Democratic Voice | 5,841 | 0.71 | 1 | +1 | |
SWANU | 5,330 | 0.65 | 1 |