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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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112789
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11278900.033
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1990-09-19
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WORLD, Page 53NAMIBIAThe Doves WinSWAPO succeeds at the polls, but not by too much
Democracy arrived with becoming moderation in Namibia last
week. The country's first internationally accepted election went
off almost flawlessly. An impressive 97% of the 701,000 voters
peacefully chose a National Assembly that will write a constitution
and end 74 years of South African control. By denying any single
party absolute power in the 72-seat assembly, the voters boosted
the chance that democratic institutions will take root after the
international observers go home.
The biggest vote getter, as expected, was the South West
African People's Organization, or SWAPO, the Marxist-led group that
conducted a 23-year guerrilla war for independence. But SWAPO won
only 57% of the vote and 41 seats, far short of the 85% prediction
by Sam Nujoma, 60, the group's leader, or of the 67% that would
have let SWAPO shape the constitution on its own.
SWAPO's main opposition in the assembly will come from the
Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, a moderate, multiracial group that
favors private enterprise. The alliance won 29% of the votes and
21 seats. Five minor parties will provide SWAPO and the D.T.A. with
possible allies.
SWAPO's lackluster performance stemmed partly from gruesome
accounts of torture, killings and imprisonment of dissidents at
SWAPO detention camps that emerged during the campaign. Nujoma was
also blamed for ordering his armed troops to return last April in
contravention of a U.N. cease-fire; 300 of them were killed by
waiting South African forces. Nujoma tried to counteract the bad
publicity with a conciliation offensive. He met with South African
officials, released white doves at rallies to symbolize peace and
reassured the country that SWAPO "has no intention of imposing our
views on others." Now that the elections have bound SWAPO to a
broad-based assembly, those white doves may keep flying.