Moderate party quits Namibia coalition

Press, 10 July 1979, Page 8

Moderate party quits Namibia coalition

NZPA-Reuter 1 1 Windhoek, Namibia The Federal Party, one of < the main partners in the Na- ' mibia National Front, the c Centrist political grouping in Namibia (South-West ' Africa), has announced that . it is pulling out of the al- I liance. 1 According to sources close to the Front’s executive, the ' Federal Party has withdrawn 1 because of personality I clashes between the party i leader, Bryan O’Linn, who I was also secretary-general of t the Front and other senior 1 members of the coalition. The question of whether i the Federal Party will accept i an invitation to join the ter- 1 ritory’s National Assembly r — already rejected by other

front partners — is also be- > lieved to have been at issue. 1 Mr O’Linn was non- i committal about the split, i “We have simply pulled i out,” he said. i Asked if the Federal Party i would join the National ; Assembly, he said: “It’s ex- 1 tremely unlikely, but it can- I not be excluded.” Mr O’Linn’s party, linked with five others in the i Front, took up a position between the Left-wing nat- ' ionalist South-West Africa People’s Organisation and the Conservative Democratic i Turnhalle Alliance. i The Federal Party draws its allegiance chiefly from 1 whites and the Rehoboth i Basters, a tribal group of I mixed race. The Turnhall Alliance :

won a landslide victory last December in elections for a constituent assembly for the territory. But the Front and several other parties boycotted the South African-run ballot, saying it would jeopardise chances for a United Nations independence plan for Namibia. When two months ago South Africa proclaimed the constituent assembly to be a National Assembly, the Turnhalle Alliance offered to increase the body’s seats by 15 to take in what it described as unrepresented democratic parties. The Front would have been a prime candidate for seats, but most of its members expressed opposition. The Federal Party has not announced a decision.