1970 South African general election

22 April 1970 (1970-04-22)

All 166 seats in the House of Assembly
84 seats needed for a majority
Turnout74.35% (Increase 5.87pp)
  First party Second party Third party
 
Leader B. J. Vorster De Villiers Graaff Jan Steytler
Party National United PFP
Last election 58.31%, 126 seats 36.62%, 39 seats 3.05%, 1 seat
Seats won 118 47 1
Seat change Decrease 8 Increase 8 Steady 0
Popular vote 820,968 553,280 51,760
Percentage 54.89% 36.94% 3.43%
Swing Decrease3.42pp Increase0.32pp Increase 0.38pp

Prime Minister before election

B. J. Vorster
National

Elected Prime Minister

B. J. Vorster
National

External videos
video icon AP Archive report about the election, YouTube video

General elections were held in South Africa on 22 April 1970 to elect members of the 166-seat House of Assembly. Parliament was dissolved on 2 March and the deadline for the submission of candidates was 13 March.

The elections marked the first time since the formation of South African in 1910 that the House of Assembly would be responsible solely to White South Africans, as the seats for the four MPs elected separately by "qualified" Cape Coloured voters expired in the same year, completing the process of political apartheid. They were also the first elections after the 1969 expulsion of Albert Hertzog and many verkrampte (hardline) representatives from the ruling National Party (NP), who had subsequently formed the Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP). This realignment marked a new chapter in the political divisions of the country, with the hardline Afrikaner right-wing later forming the Conservative Party in the early 1980s.

The elections resulted in the NP retained its large majority, reaffirming it as the dominant party for the post-Verwoerd era. Several new representatives were elected, including Chris Heunis, future Acting President and candidate for the NP leadership, and Pik Botha, future Minister of Foreign Affairs (1977–1994). However, the NP lost seats for the first time since the 1948 election, seeing its representation reduced by eight seats. With Hertzog's HNP failing to win a seat, the split in the nationalist vote benefitted the moderate United Party (UP) in several constituencies, invigorating it for perhaps the last time. Helen Suzman, member for Houghton, retained her seat in Johannesburg as the sole representative of the liberal Progressive Party, the last parliament for which she would sit for her caucus alone. Colin Eglin, who became leader of the Progressive Party in 1971, was defeated in the Cape Town seat of Sea Point by only 231 votes.

Results

Eleven members were elected unopposed. Voting in one constituency did not take place, with the National Party winning the subsequent by-election to give it a total of 118 seats.[1]

PartyVotes%Seats+/–
National Party822,03454.89117–9
United Party553,28036.9447+8
Herstigte Nasionale Party53,7353.590New
Progressive Party51,7423.4510
United National South West Party8,3960.5600
National Alliance Party2,2610.150New
Independent Nationalist1,4930.100New
Independent National Party1,1140.070New
Democratic National Party3940.030New
Front Party740.0000
Independents3,1290.2100
Vacant1
Total1,497,652100.00166–4
Valid votes1,497,65299.34
Invalid/blank votes9,9820.66
Total votes1,507,634100.00
Registered voters/turnout2,161,23469.76
Source: Potgieter[2]

Aftermath

Pik Botha made his maiden speech in an unusual tone for an NP deputy, demanding that the government sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights. F. W. de Klerk was eventually elected to this parliament in a by-election to the seat for Vereeniging in September 1972, replacing NP member V P Coetzee.[3]

References

  1. South Africa Inter-Parliamentary Union
  2. Dirk J. Potgieter (1971) Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Volume 4, p273
  3. "Pik Botha and his times". Archived from the original on 1 October 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
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