Parliamentary elections were held in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

between 7 and 11 November 1989. These elections were for the

Constituent Assembly of Namibia Below is a list of members of the Constituent Assembly of Namibia, which became the National Assembly of Namibia upon independence in March 1990. Individual members were selected by political parties voted for in the 1989 election, the first de ...

, which, upon independence in March 1990, became the

National Assembly of Namibia The National Assembly is the lower chamber of Namibia's bicameral Parliament. Its laws must be approved by the National Council, the upper house. Since 2014, it has a total of 104 members. 96 members are directly elected through a system of clos ...

Background

The elections were facilitated by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoni ...

, after the withdrawal of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

n troops from

South West Africa South West Africa ( af, Suidwes-Afrika; german: Südwestafrika; nl, Zuidwest-Afrika) was a territory under South African administration from 1915 to 1990, after which it became modern-day Namibia. It bordered Angola (Portuguese colony before 1 ...

(present day Namibia) after the 1988 Tripartite Accords. The UN established the

United Nations Transition Assistance Group The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. N ...

and through its resolutions 629,

632 __NOTOC__ Year 632 ( DCXXXII) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 632 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar er ...

, 640 and

643 __NOTOC__ Year 643 ( DCXLIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 643 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar ...

in 1989, implemented the United Nations plan for Namibia in

435 __NOTOC__ Year 435 (Roman numerals, CDXXXV) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Theodosius and Valentinianus (or, less f ...

(1978) to help secure free and fair elections, and eventually, the country's independence. The United Nations plan included overview by foreign election observers who monitored the election process. The work of foreign observers helped to ensure that the elections were certified as

free and fair A free and fair election is defined by political scientist Robert Dahl as an election in which "coercion is comparatively uncommon". A free and fair election involves political freedoms and fair processes leading up to the vote, a fair count of el ...

by the

UN Special Representative A Special Representative of the Secretary-General is a highly respected expert who has been appointed by the Secretary-General of the United Nations to represent them in meetings with heads of state on critical human rights issues. The representativ ...

. 701,483 people registered to vote, with 680,788 casting votes, equating to a voter turnout of 97%. Foreign Observer identification badge in the 1989 Namibian election

Results

Aftermath

Following the election SWAPO supporters celebrated across

Windhoek Windhoek (, , ) is the capital and largest city of Namibia. It is located in central Namibia in the Khomas Highland plateau area, at around above sea level, almost exactly at the country's geographical centre. The population of Windhoek in 202 ...

, especially in the segregated and predominantly black township of

Katutura Katutura (Otjiherero for ''The place where people do not want to live'') is a township of Windhoek, Khomas Region, Namibia. Katutura was created in 1961 following the forced removal of Windhoek's black population from the Old Location, which a ...

Dirk Mudge Dirk Frederik Mudge (16 January 192826 August 2020) was a Namibian politician. He served in several high-ranking positions in the South African administration of South West Africa, was the chairman of the 1975–1977 Turnhalle Constitutional Con ...

, chairman of the DTA, pledged to work with the SWAPO government in moving towards independence and national development. Support for the DTA and UDF was strong in the former

bantustans A Bantustan (also known as Bantu homeland, black homeland, black state or simply homeland; ) was a territory that the National Party administration of South Africa set aside for black inhabitants of South Africa and South West Africa (now ...

, including Hereroland and

Damaraland Damaraland was a name given to the north-central part of what later became Namibia, inhabited by the Damaras. It was bounded roughly by Ovamboland in the north, the Namib Desert in the west, the Kalahari Desert in the east, and Windhoek i ...

. As a result of SWAPO's election victory, its then president

Sam Nujoma Samuel Shafiishuna Daniel Nujoma, (; born 12 May 1929) is a Namibian revolutionary, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served three terms as the first President of Namibia, from 1990 to 2005. Nujoma was a founding member and the first ...

was unanimously declared

President of Namibia The president of the Republic of Namibia is the head of state and the head of government of Namibia. The president directs the executive branch of the Government of Namibia, as chair of the Cabinet and is the commander-in-chief of the armed fo ...

, and was sworn in by UN Secretary-General Javier Pérez de Cuéllar on 21 March 1990. Since then Namibia has held both presidential elections and parliamentary elections every five years.

References

External links

Reprint of "Namibian Voters Deny Total Power to SWAPO" by Michael Johns
''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'', November 19, 1989. {{Namibian elections

Parliamentary election A general election is a political voting election where generally all or most members of a given political body are chosen. These are usually held for a nation, state, or territory's primary legislative body, and are different from by-elections ( ...

Elections in Namibia National Assembly (Namibia) November 1989 events in Africa