Oil and gas-rich Namibia is set to have its first female head of state after Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwa of the ruling SWAPO party won the presidential election. However, her main rival, Panduleni Itula of the Independent Patriots for Change (IPC),

Across southern Africa, political parties that have led their countries since the end of colonialism have ceded power to the opposition in recent months. Namibia bucked the trend.

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah of the South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) has been elected as the first female president of Namibia.

Namibia has made history by electing Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah as its first female president. This historic move comes as

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, from the governing South West Africa People's Organisation (Swapo), has been voted in as Namibia's first female president after last week's disputed election. The electoral commission said she had won more than 57% of the votes cast, with her closest rival Panduleni Itula getting 26%.

Namibia’s ruling party presidential candidate leads in early results of an election characterized by technical problems which caused voting to be extended for three days

Namibia’s main opposition party has said it will not recognise results from this week’s general election, where there have been logistical problems and voting was extended in several places.

Partial results from Namibia’s elections show the sparsely populated southwest African nation is on course to appoint its first female leader since it gained independence almost 35 years ago. Most Read from BloombergRiyadh Metro Partially Opens in Bid to Ease City’s Traffic JamsAs Wars Rage,

Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah won with 57% of the vote, according to official results, defying predictions that she might be forced into a runoff.