Namibia Elections

Leftist guerrillas, who entered politics after a 23-year war for independence from South Africa, captured a 57% majority in a U.N.-sponsored national election Tuesday, giving them an important but not decisive say in drawing up a new constitution. Several hundred supporters of the South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), which had waged one of Africa's longest and bloodiest liberation struggles, danced merrily on Kaiser Street in downtown Windhoek as news of the election results spread.

Hundreds of jubilant supporters in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, celebrated the runaway victories of President Sam Nujoma and his ruling party in the South African nation's third democratic election. With most of the ballots counted, the South-West African People's Organization, or SWAPO, had 77% of the vote. Nujoma, 70, also took 77% of the presidential ballot in winning a third term.

Sam Nujoma, a former guerrilla leader who spent 30 years in exile, was elected Namibia's first president Friday and will take office when the territory wins independence from South Africa on March 21. Nujoma, 60, helped found the South-West Africa People's Organization in 1960 and led it through a 23-year guerrilla war against South African rule of Namibia, Africa's last colony.

An utterly peaceful two-day election in Namibia last week capped a year of astonishing democratic and economic gains in southern Africa, a long-blighted region that now offers dramatic hope for a crippled continent. In Namibia's first post-independence election, the incumbent president, Sam Nujoma, and his ruling party, the South-West Africa People's Organization, or SWAPO, swept nearly 72% of the vote in the former South African colony, a sparsely populated nation twice the size of California.

The South African army ran a multimillion-dollar covert scheme, code-named Operation Agree, to prop up its political friends during 1989 elections in Namibia and smear the favored South-West Africa People's Organization, a former military agent said Friday.

Hundreds of Angolans are fleeing into neighboring Namibia to escape fighting between right-wing rebels and Angolan government troops, a Namibian government spokesman said. Up to 700 Angolans were reported to have entered northern Namibia, causing a major headache for U.N. officials, who are preparing to repatriate thousands of Namibians after years of exile. An international airlift of Namibian refugees starts today, the latest stage in the colony's U.N.-organized transition to independence from South Africa.

Hundreds of jubilant supporters in Namibia's capital, Windhoek, celebrated the runaway victories of President Sam Nujoma and his ruling party in the South African nation's third democratic election. With most of the ballots counted, the South-West African People's Organization, or SWAPO, had 77% of the vote. Nujoma, 70, also took 77% of the presidential ballot in winning a third term.

South Africa has reportedly agreed to the gist of a U.S. proposal to grant independence to South-West Africa--also known as Namibia--within a year and let Cuban troops remain in neighboring Angola for up to two years, two leading South African newspapers reported. Under this plan, South African forces would withdraw from Namibia and U.S.-sponsored elections would take place, the Citizen, a pro-government newspaper, and Business Day, the country's leading financial daily, said.

After 23 years of war and 20,000 fatalities, Namibians today will begin a five-day election to choose 72 representatives who will draft a constitution and guide the nation to independence from South Africa next year. The United Nations deployed 1,200 poll watchers in an effort to ensure a fair election. The South-West Africa People's Organization is expected to outpoll nine other parties in the vote.

South Africa said hundreds of Namibian guerrillas have crossed into Namibia from Angola in the past week. Calling it a "grave threat" to U.N.-supervised Namibian independence elections scheduled for next week, Pretoria said it has put its troops on alert in the South-African controlled territory.

A former South African military intelligence officer charged that government payments to opposition parties in Namibia are continuing. The accusation by Nico Basson, a retired major in the South African Defense Forces, came a day after Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha revealed that Pretoria donated $36 million in a failed bid to stop Namibia's South-West Africa People's Organization from winning independence elections in 1989.

Foreign Minister Roelof F. (Pik) Botha disclosed Thursday that the government tried to sway 1989 elections in neighboring Namibia with secret aid to anti-rebel groups, widening a political scandal over covert operations. Botha also defended the use of secret funds to the Inkatha Freedom Party as "the right thing" despite the subsequent controversy that could disrupt power-sharing talks with Inkatha's main rival, the African National Congress.

The South African army ran a multimillion-dollar covert scheme, code-named Operation Agree, to prop up its political friends during 1989 elections in Namibia and smear the favored South-West Africa People's Organization, a former military agent said Friday.

Sam Nujoma, a former guerrilla leader who spent 30 years in exile, was elected Namibia's first president Friday and will take office when the territory wins independence from South Africa on March 21. Nujoma, 60, helped found the South-West Africa People's Organization in 1960 and led it through a 23-year guerrilla war against South African rule of Namibia, Africa's last colony.

Leftist guerrillas, who entered politics after a 23-year war for independence from South Africa, captured a 57% majority in a U.N.-sponsored national election Tuesday, giving them an important but not decisive say in drawing up a new constitution. Several hundred supporters of the South-West Africa People's Organization (SWAPO), which had waged one of Africa's longest and bloodiest liberation struggles, danced merrily on Kaiser Street in downtown Windhoek as news of the election results spread.

A group that fought a guerrilla war with South Africa finished first in elections that will lead Namibia to independence, but failed to win enough votes to claim total power, unofficial results showed today. Thousands of people who were pleased that the South-West Africa People's Organization at least won a majority thronged the streets of the capital and adjoining townships today, waving flags, singing and honking horns. "We are very happy.

A black tailor named Helmut Hamwaama awoke before dawn Tuesday, eager for his first glimpse of one-man, one-vote democracy. But when he arrived at his local polling station in this township, the line of like-minded men in work clothes and women carrying babies already stretched half a mile down the dusty road. After a six-hour wait, Hamwaama presented his registration card to U.N. officials.

For 23 years, the guerrillas of the South-West Africa People's Organization fought a bush war to wrest control of Namibia from South African colonizers and plant the principles of Karl Marx deeply in the sandy soil of the sparsely populated territory. But today, as SWAPO sits on the verge of realizing its dream in Namibia's first free and democratic elections, the rhetoric of war has given way to the practicalities of politics.

A black tailor named Helmut Hamwaama awoke before dawn Tuesday, eager for his first glimpse of one-man, one-vote democracy. But when he arrived at his local polling station in this township, the line of like-minded men in work clothes and women carrying babies already stretched half a mile down the dusty road. After a six-hour wait, Hamwaama presented his registration card to U.N. officials.