Southern Africa: Namibia in Numbers ... Voter Turnout

With the 2025 regional council and local authority elections taking place on 26 November, the Electoral Commission of Namibia has noted poor voter turnout in previous election years.

Indeed, voter turnout is weak, particularly in comparison to the national elections. In 2020, voter turnout for the regional council and local authority elections came to 37% and 43%, respectively, compared to a 60% turnout in the 2019 national election.

As the number of votes in each constituency and region is significantly less than that of the two broader National Assembly and presidential elections, the results are often decided by a margin of less than a hundred votes, or even less than 10 votes in some constituencies.

The regional and local elections are thus often tightly contested in each constituency; thus, an individual's casted vote holds more weight in these elections given lower turnout (ironically this becomes less true as more individuals cast their votes).

Regional council and local authority elections arguably hold much unappreciated weight as they have a greater impact on some aspects of the public's everyday life within their towns/communities than the broader elections.

The Institute for Public Policy Research notes that there is a low level of enthusiasm for these elections because the public is not well informed about their importance and purpose of these elections.

Potential voters in regional council and local authority elections believe the outcome is predictable and that their vote does not make a difference, when in fact the margins are often very small and a handful of additional votes could indeed change the outcome.

Local authorities have power over several public and merit goods, such as water and electricity supply, waste management, ambulance services, traffic services, housing schemes, roads, public transportation, and more. Some aspects do require the minister's approval, while the power to borrow, loan, donate and grant money requires approval of the central government.

- Tannan Groenewald is the head of data and analytics at Cirrus Capital.

Read the original article on Namibian.