Namibia The Doves Win

Democracy arrived with becoming moderation in Namibia last week. The country's first internationally accepted election went off almost flawlessly. An impressive 97% of the 701,000 voters peacefully chose a National Assembly that will write a constitution and end 74 years of South African control. By denying any single party absolute power in the 72-seat assembly, the voters boosted the chance that democratic institutions will take root after the international observers go home.

The biggest vote getter, as expected, was the South West African People's Organization, or SWAPO, the Marxist-led group that conducted a 23-year guerrilla war for independence. But SWAPO won only 57% of the vote and 41 seats, far short of the 85% prediction by Sam Nujoma, 60, the group's leader, or of the 67% that would have let SWAPO shape the constitution on its own.

SWAPO's main opposition in the assembly will come from the Democratic Turnhalle Alliance, a moderate, multiracial group that favors private enterprise. The alliance won 29% of the votes and 21 seats. Five minor parties will provide SWAPO and the D.T.A. with possible allies.

SWAPO's lackluster performance stemmed partly from gruesome accounts of torture, killings and imprisonment of dissidents at SWAPO detention camps that emerged during the campaign. Nujoma was also blamed for ordering his armed troops to return last April in contravention of a U.N. cease-fire; 300 of them were killed by waiting South African forces. Nujoma tried to counteract the bad publicity with a conciliation offensive. He met with South African officials, released white doves at rallies to symbolize peace and reassured the country that SWAPO "has no intention of imposing our views on others." Now that the elections have bound SWAPO to a broad-based assembly, those white doves may keep flying.