Namibia election: Swapo’s Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah faces Panduleni Itula from the IPC

She was recognised for her tenacity and organisational talent as leader of Swapo’s Youth League, which became a stepping stone to her political career, which has included ministerial roles in foreign affairs, tourism, child welfare and information.

She has garnered a wealth of knowledge and experience that could stand her in good stead should she get into the driving seat.

“She seems so wise and sweet and kind, even in the way she tries to say everything in such a way that even like me will understand,” Laimi, a potential voter, told the BBC in the capital, Windhoek.

“Itula is like a new piece of jewellery with his glasses, his smart suit and his confident walk, but maybe he blinds you with his shine,” said her friend Maria.

Both are young adults who have been unable to find jobs.

A trained dentist, Itula, 67, was himself once a Swapo stalwart but was expelled from the party in 2020 after runnig as an independent candidate against President Hage Geingob in the 2019 poll.

He had also been a youth leader and spent some time in prison before going into exile in the UK in the early 1980s. He returned to Namibia in 2013.

Six years later, he charismatically came crashing into the front row of Namibian politics, challenging Geingob in the presidential election after saying the Swapo process for choosing its candidate was flawed.

Itula’s intervention in that election led to Swapo getting its lowest ever share – 56% – in the presidential election and also losing its two-thirds majority in parliament.

As someone who had a professional life outside politics, he has an appeal to the 50% of the 1.5 million voters who are under the age of 35, many of whom want economic change, a job or a measurable boost to their incomes.

His bold and at times brash style, rejecting the more staid political rhetoric of Nandi-Ndaitwah, has seen him win support among business people and the growing urban intelligentsia.

But while Itula is quick off the mark and eloquent, the vice-president chooses her words wisely, and speaks slowly and deliberately.