The South West African People's Organization is a political party in Namibia. At the last legislative elections, 15 and 16 november 2004, the party won 75.1 % of popular votes and 55 out of 78 seats. A political party is a political organization that subscribes to a certain ideology and seeks to attain political power within a government. ... A legislature is a governmental deliberative body with the power to adopt laws. ...

The South-West Africa People's Organisation (SWAPO) was founded, along with a number of other groups, as a liberation organisation: following the first world war, South-West Africa — formerly a German colony — was turned over to South Africa to rule as a mandate for the British. The South African government turned this mandate arrangement into a military occupation, and extended apartheid to SWA. South-West Africa is the former name (1884-1990) of Namibia under German (as German South-West Africa, Deutsch S d-West Afrika) and (from 1915) South African administration when it was conqured from the Germans during World War I. Following the war, the Treaty of Versailles declared the territory... Apartheid (International Phonetic Alphabet or in English and in Afrikaans) is the policy and the system of laws implemented and continued by White minority governments in South Africa from 1948 till 1990; and by extension any legally sanctioned system of racial segregation. ...

SWAPO has its base among the Ovambo people of northern Namibia. By the 1960s, SWAPO emerged as the sole liberation organisation for the Namibian people, coopting other groups such as the SWA National Union (SWANU). SWAPO was essentially a military organisation, using guerrilla tactics to fight the South African military. It was based in Zambia and then after 1975, in Angola, where SWAPO was allied with their fellow Marxists in the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA). Unlike South Africa's ANC, SWAPO was not built from different sectors of society and wasn't connected to the lives of future Namibians not in exile. Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ... The MPLA flag The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (Movimiento Popular de Libertação de Angola) is an Angolan political party that has ruled the country since independence in 1975. ... ANC redirects here. ...

SWAPO, during the period of exile, was responsible for human rights abuses against its own cadres. The most serious of these was the detainee issue, which remains a divisive issue. The stories of the detainees begins with a series of successful South African raids that made the SWAPO leadership believe that there were spies in the movement. Hundreds of SWAPO cadres were imprisoned, tortured and interrogated.

When Namibia gained its independence in 1990, SWAPO became the dominant political party, with its head, Sam Nujoma, elected as Namibia's first President. Nujoma had the constitution changed so he could run for a third term in 1999, but in 2004 he was replaced as the SWAPO presidential candidate by Hifikepunye Pohamba, described by some as Nujoma's "hand-picked successor". Nujoma will, however, remain president of the SWAPO party until 2007. [1]  (http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=44135&SelectRegion=Southern_Africa&SelectCountry=NAMIBIA) 1990 is a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar. ... President Sam Nujoma Samuel Daniel Shafiishuna Nujoma (born May 12, 1929) is the first President of Namibia. ... Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba (born August 18, 1935) is a Namibian politician from the South-West Africa Peoples Organisation (SWAPO) ruling party who won the presidential election of November 15/16, 2004 with 76% of the vote, in what has been described as a landslide. [1] He was backed by...

See also

• Official web site (http://www.swapo.org.na/)