Namibia's ruling party has won the majority of votes in the country's parliamentary polls, final results have shown.

South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) won 75.27 per cent of the vote and returned President Hifikepunye Pohamba for the second term in office after securing 76.4 per cent of the presidential vote, according to official results released on Friday.

The Rally for Democracy and Progress (RDP), the ruling party's nearest rival, won 11.31 per cent of the vote.

The vote, which consisted of 107 contested constituencies, resulted from a final count of 811,143 votes, revealing a 54-seat win for SWAPO out of 72 possible seats in the National Assembly, just one less than its previous victory in 2005.

The RDP, which broke away from the ruling party in 2007, took eight seats.

Election results rejected

Earlier on Friday, the RDP and seven other opposition parties rejected the results of the elections and said they would file a court challenge.

The parties instructed their legal teams to institute proceedings against the Electoral Commission of Namibia "for contravening the electoral law of the country," they said.

While African observers of the elections have pronounced them free and fair, opposition parties also complained about not being adequately informed about the vote verification process.

Hifikepunye Pohamba, Namibia's re-elected president, has been in power since 2005 but his SWAPO party has maintained a majority of seats in parliament since the country received its independence from South Africa in 1990.

Namibia has enjoyed political stability and economic growth, but is struggling in the face of rising poverty, unemployment and widening cracks in its once highly regarded health care and school systems, further exacerbated by the global recession.

aljazeera