Profile: Hifikepunye Pohamba

Pohamba is expected to win this month's poll

A political prisoner, who was whipped in public for his activism, and who has pushed through Namibia's land reform, Hifikepunye Pohamba is expected to keep the status quo, after his election as president.

He echoes the views of Namibia's founding president, Sam Nujoma, was nominated by the president and is from the same ruling Swapo party, which has dominated politics since independence.

It is a standing joke in Namibia that the two men even look alike - that was until Mr Pohamba recently shaved his beard off.

Mr Pohamba, 69, has a reputation for being accessible - he leaves his office door open - and seems to like a good joke.

'Poverty agenda'

However, as Lands Minister he has sped up one of Namibia's most controversial schemes - the expropriation of land from white farmers to black citizens.

Pohamba and Nujoma not only share political views, but looks too

He says the "willing-seller, willing-buyer" policy of the past 14 years has moved too slowly and expropriation is now needed.

In pursuing such a policy, he has allied himself closely with Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe, who has also pushed through land reform, with some say, disastrous consequences.

It is thought if he wins in the election, poverty will top Mr Pohamba's agenda.

Party official

Born on 18 August, 1935, at Okanghudi in northern Namibia, Mr Pohamba was educated by missionaries.

At the age of 25, he helped found Swapo.

After he was arrested for his political activity, he left for Rhodesia but was promptly deported.

He spent four months in prison in Namibia before spending two years under house arrest in Owamboland, in the north of the country.

He then left home to set up Swapo's Angola office. It was on returning from Luanda that he met President Sam Nujoma.

Until the 1990s, Mr Pohamba represented Swapo across the African continent, with a brief spell out studying social and political studies in the former Soviet Union.

He headed Swapo's election campaign, before becoming an MP in 1990.

He then held the internal affairs, fisheries and marine resources, and land ministry portfolios.

Since 2002, he has served as vice-president of Swapo.

Married in 1983, he has six children.