Elections to the South West African Legislative Assembly 1978

The 1978 elections for the South West African Legislative Assembly were the last parliamentary elections in South West Africa before Namibia's independence in 1990 and took place between December 4 and 8, 1978 . For the first time, not only the white population of the mandate was entitled to vote. The Democratic Gym Alliance emerged victorious from the election. The government formed after the election remained under the control of South Africa until its end (following the dissolution of parliament in 1983) .

The elections were carried out without the supervision of the United Nations and in disregard of the recognition of the liberation movement SWAPO as "the only representative of the Namibian people" , decided by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1972 .

background

From 1975 to 1977 the controversial gymnasium conference met in Windhoek , which was supposed to deliberate on a draft constitution for an independent Namibia under South African influence. The South African government invited selected representatives from eleven ethnic groups. Political parties were not taken into account. As a result of the conference and as a counterweight to SWAPO, the Democratic Gym Alliance (DTA) was founded in 1977 .

The gym conference drew up a draft constitution. This constitution was confirmed in a referendum in 1977, in which only white people were allowed to participate. In accordance with the new constitution, the parliamentary elections were held in December 1978.

execution

The 1978 general election was the first multi-ethnic election in the South West African area. In all previous elections, only whites had been allowed to vote. However, the SWAPO , SWAPO Democrats (SWAPO-D), a split from SWAPO, and the Namibia National Front were excluded from the election. These parties then called for a boycott of the elections. Nevertheless, the voter turnout was surprisingly high at 80%. The presence of South African troops, especially in the north of Namibia, the home country of SWAPO, was both a reason for the high voter turnout and for the DTA's successes. In any case, the election showed, on the one hand, that large sections of the population did not support the SWAPO's liberation struggle and, on the other hand, that the smaller ethnic groups took the position of the General Assembly of the United Nations, namely the SWAPO, mainly supported by the Ovambo , as the “only representation of the Namibian People ”, not divided.

Results

The DTA won the elections by a landslide victory and received 41 of the 50 seats in the new parliament, the National Assembly. With Dirk Mudge she also provided the chairman of the Council of Ministers, d. H. the transitional government formed after the election. Johannes Skrywer became spokesman for the National Assembly.

1

6th

1

41

1

1 6th 1 41 1 

A total of 50 seats

• RLF : 1
• ACTUR : 6
• NCDP : 1
• DTA : 41
• HNP : 1

Political party	be right	Voting shares	Seats
Democratic Gym Alliance (DTA)	268.130	82.18%	41
Action Front for the Retention of Turnhalle Principles (ACTUR)	38,716	11.87%	6th
Namibia Christian Democratic Party (NCDP)	9,073	2.78%	1
Seasonal Party (HNP)	5,781	1.77%	1
Rehoboth Liberation Front (RLF)	4,564	1.40%	1
Total (turnout 80.2%)	893.643	100%	50

The UN Security Council declared the election “null and void” and the resulting interim government illegitimate.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Hans Klein : The December 1978 elections in Namibia . In: German Africa Foundation (ed.): South West Africa becomes Namibia . Bonn 1979, pp. 53-64.
2. ^ Justin Ellis: Namibia, negotiations and "elections" . Styrelsen för internationell utveckling. Stockholm 1979, ISBN 91-586-9002-6 .
3. ↑ South West Africa: Elections under threats of boycott . In: Africa Post. Independent journal for politics, economy and culture in southern Africa . Vol. 25 (1976), No. 3 (December), p. 364.