20091201

WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibia's ruling party is expected to secure another five-year term on Tuesday following presidential and parliamentary elections, but its two-thirds majority could be under threat.

The electoral commission said the final results of last week's voting would be published later in the day, although counting has been subject to a series of delays.

Initial results from nearly 85,000 of 1.18 million registered voters in the arid state show the South West Africa People's Organisation, a former guerrilla movement that led the country to independence in 1990, leading with 67 percent.

SWAPO's sternest political challenge yet comes from the Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), which split from the ruling party in 2007, and holds 11.6 percent of the votes cast.

Altogether 72 National Assembly seats up for grabs in Namibia, one of Africa's wealthier states because of diamond and uranium exports. In 2004 elections SWAPO won 55 seats and needs to secure 48 seats to retain the two-thirds majority.

"Even within SWAPO there is a very strong group which believes that the RDP is going to get a lot of votes ... If the RDP can get anything from 18 seats upwards, it would be goodbye to the two-thirds majority," said Nico Horn, Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of Namibia.

The two-thirds majority allows SWAPO to change the constitution.

In the presidential vote, President Hifikepunye Pohamba, who succeeded founding president Sam Nujoma, led with 68 percent, with RDP's Hidipo Hamutenya taking 12 percent.