ABSTRACT
The November 1989 elections in Namibia marked that country’s shift from war to peace and from colony to independent state. South Africa and its appointed Administrator-General took over absolute power from the Transitional Government at the beginning of the transition, and remained in unambiguous control of running the election. The regulations governing the conduct and type of election were always assumed by the South Africans and South West African People’s Organisation (SWAPO) to have a bearing on the result, and so were themselves matters for contestation. Ten parties contested the elections, but the main battle was always between SWAPO and Democratic Tumhalle Alliance which eventually shared 85% of votes cast. SWAPO was the winning party in only eight of the 23 electoral districts, but that meant little as they were not constituencies. After the election, but before formal independence in 1990, the various political alliances of the opposition fronts began to crumble, and there were splits in the parties.
