In 1994, apartheid officially ended. Which country held its first multiracial elections?

The story behind the answer

South Africa is correct. On April 27, 1994—now celebrated as Freedom Day—the country held its first fully inclusive, multiracial democratic elections, ending nearly half a century of apartheid laws that disenfranchised the nonwhite majority. Nelson Mandela’s African National Congress won, and Mandela became South Africa’s first Black president, symbolizing a peaceful transition from institutionalized racial segregation to democracy.

To remember this, link “1994” with “Mandela and the Rainbow Nation.” The other options don’t fit the date: Namibia became independent in 1990 (first elections in 1989), Zimbabwe’s landmark elections followed independence in 1980, and Botswana had been conducting democratic elections since independence in 1966. South Africa’s 1994 vote stands out globally as a milestone in ending a legalized racial hierarchy through the ballot box.