National Council (Namibia)

{{Short description|Upper house of the Parliament of Namibia}}

{{Cleanup bare URLs|date=September 2022}}

{{Infobox legislature

| background_color = #F0001C

| name = National Council

| coa_pic = Coat of arms of Namibia.svg

| coa_res = 150px

| legislature =

| house_type = Upper House

| body = Parliament of Namibia

| foundation = 23 February 1993{{Cite web |url=https://www.parliament.na/index.php/national-council |title=National Council |access-date=2020-05-08 |archive-date=2021-05-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210513034934/https://parliament.na/index.php/national-council |url-status=dead }}

| leader1_type = Chairperson

| leader1 = Lukas Sinimbo Muha

| party1 = SWAPO

| election1 = 15 December 2020http://www.parliament.gov.na/index.php/component/content/article?layout=edit&id=495{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

| leader2_type = Deputy Chairperson

| leader2 = Victoria Kauma

| party2 = SWAPO

| election2 = 9 December 2019

| members = 42

| term_length = 5 years

| structure1 = Seating_of_the_National_Council_of_Namibia.svg

| structure1_res = 250px

| political_groups1 = Government (28) {{legend|#F0001C|SWAPO (28)}}Official opposition (6) {{legend|#FC7B2C|LPM (6)}}Other parties (8) {{legend|#000080|PDM (2)}} {{legend|#DEAA87|IPC (2)}} {{legend|#008000|UDF (2)}} {{legend|#0B4000|NUDO (1)}} {{legend|#C2C2C2|Independent (1)}}

| committees1 =

| joint_committees =

| voting_system1 = Indirect election by Regional Councils

| last_election1 = 25 November 2020

| session_room = National Council Namibia.jpg

| session_res =

| session_alt =

| meeting_place = National Council Building, Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia

| website = [http://www.parliament.na Parliament of Namibia]

| footnotes =

}}

{{Politics of Namibia}}

The National Council is the upper chamber of Namibia's bicameral Parliament. It reviews bills passed by the lower chamber and makes recommendations for legislation of regional concern to the lower chamber.{{Cite web|url=https://www.parliament.na/index.php/footer-history|title=History|website=www.parliament.na|access-date=2020-04-19|archive-date=2020-07-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200722204205/https://www.parliament.na/index.php/footer-history|url-status=dead}}

The 42 National Council members are indirectly elected by regional councils for a term of five years.{{Cite web|url=https://data.ipu.org/content/namibia|title=Namibia|date=July 5, 2018|website=New Parline: the IPU’s Open Data Platform (beta)}}{{Dead link|date=December 2024 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Each of the 14 regional councils chooses three of its members to serve on the National Council.{{Cite journal | title=Women and political participation in Namibia and Nigeria: a comparative analysis of women in elective positions | first1=Maryam Omolara| last1=Quadri | first2=Erika K | last2=Thomas | journal=Journal for Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences | publisher=University of Namibia | volume=7 | issue=2 | date=2018 | issn=2026-7215 | pages=6–9 | url=http://repository.unam.edu.na/bitstream/handle/11070/2426/quadri_women_2018.pdf}} The last regional council elections were held on 25 November 2020.

Political party distribution in the {{As of|2020|alt=current}} National Council is as follows:{{Cite news | title=First independent to serve as MP | last=Iikela | first=Sakeus | newspaper=The Namibian | date=14 December 2020 | page=3 | url=https://www.namibian.com.na/97362/read/First-independent-to-serve-as-MP}}

• South West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) - 28 seats
• Landless People's Movement (LPM) - 6 seats
• Independent Patriots for Change (IPC) - 2 seats
• United Democratic Front (UDF) - 2 seats
• Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) - 2 seats
• National Unity Democratic Organisation (NUDO) - 1 seat
• Independent - 1 seat

The National Council meets in the capital Windhoek in the National Council Building next to the Tintenpalast. The chairperson as of December 2020 is Lukas Muha.