Word: namibia
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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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...
Mile-long lines of patient first-time voters snaked toward polling booths under a broiling sun last week as Namibia held United Nations-supervised elections that will lead the territory to independence after 74 years of South African control. So great was the enthusiasm that more than 90% of the country's 701,000 eligible voters cast ballots...
Elections for an independent Namibia were less than a week away when South Africa, which has controlled the country for 74 years, called foul. Pretoria dramatically claimed that hundreds of Marxist SWAPO guerrillas were infiltrating illegally into the country, posing a serious threat to a free and fair vote. Claiming to have "monitored" internal messages from a United Nations group supervising the election, South Africa suggested that the unit was reluctant to act against SWAPO. Vowing to "take whatever steps would be required," South Africa put its own troops on alert...
...officials denounced the supposed intercepts as fakes, and peacekeepers in Namibia reported that the country was "exceptionally calm." South Africa's actions appeared to be a last pre-election blast against SWAPO, which is favored to win and install a leftist government on South Africa's border. Pretoria retreated by week's end, saying it might have fallen for a hoax...
Nujoma, who has waged a protracted armed struggle against South African rule, returned to Namibia in time to register as a voter in the November elections for a constituent assembly, which will prepare the territory for final independence next year. But SWAPO's election director, Hage Geingob, is among those who fear that Namibia's history of political bloodshed may not yet be over. If any harm came to Nujoma, he said, "the consequences would be too ghastly to contemplate...