1992 — White South Africans Vote to End Apartheid

On March 17, 1992, white South Africans voted overwhelmingly, 68.7 percent to 31.2 percent, to end apartheid, in the final election ever restricted to white voters. The ballot asked whether the reform process F. W. de Klerk began in 1990 should continue toward a new constitution through negotiation.

De Klerk had stunned the world by unbanning the ANC and freeing Nelson Mandela after more than twenty-seven years in prison; now he needed his own electorate's mandate. With eighty-five percent turnout, the yes vote won decisively, and de Klerk declared the book on apartheid closed. Two years later, Mandela became president.