WINDHOEK (Reuters) - Namibians voted on Wednesday in what was expected to be the toughest contest yet for the party that has ruled for three decades of independence as the southern African country wrestles with an economic crisis and its biggest corruption scandal.

President Hage Geingob, Namibia's third leader since the sparsely populated and mostly arid country freed itself from the shackles of apartheid South Africa in 1990, is seeking a second and final term from 1.3 million registered voters.