World Notes NAMIBIA

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.

The leftist SWAPO Party, which led a guerrilla war against South Africa for 23 years, is expected to win a majority of the 72 seats in the National Assembly, but the key question will be the size of its victory. If SWAPO gains two-thirds of the seats, it will be able to frame the country's new constitution on its own terms. But observers believed the voting procedures would limit SWAPO's prospects. Example: since about half the voters were illiterate, many were likely to be confused by the fact that nine of the ten contending parties had ballot symbols that were similar to SWAPO's clenched fist.