From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1977 South African general election

none

Field	Value
country	South Africa
flag_year	1928
type	Parliamentary
previous_election	1974 South African general election
previous_year	1974
election_date	30 November 1977
next_election	1981 South African general election
next_year	1981
seats_for_election	164 of the 165 seats in the House of Assembly
majority_seats	83
registered	2,193,635
turnout	48.52% ( 3.35pp)
image_size	130x130px
image1	John Vorster.jpg
leader1	B. J. Vorster
party1	National Party (South Africa)
last_election1	56.14%, 122 seats
seats1	134
seat_change1	12
popular_vote1	685,035
percentage1	65.34%
swing1	9.20pp
image2	Colin Eglin (cropped).jpg
leader2	Colin Eglin
party2	Progressive Federal Party
last_election2	6.37%, 6 seats
seats2	17
seat_change2	11
popular_vote2	177,705
percentage2	16.95%
swing2	10.58pp
image3
leader3	Radclyffe Cadman
party3	New Republic Party (South Africa)
last_election3	32.84%, 41 seats
seats3	10
seat_change3	31
popular_vote3	127,335
percentage3	12.15%
swing3	20.69pp
title	Prime Minister
before_election	B. J. Vorster
before_party	National Party (South Africa)
after_election	B. J. Vorster
after_party	National Party (South Africa)

General elections were held in South Africa on 30 November 1977. The National Party, led by B. J. Vorster won a landslide victory in the House of Assembly with a supermajority. The newly formed Progressive Federal Party, led by Colin Eglin became the official opposition. The New Republic Party, successor to the United Party, won only 10 seats, all but one of them in Natal Province. Once again, the Herstigte Nasionale Party failed to win any seats.

In the 1977 elections, the National Party received its best-ever result with support of 65% of the vote and (after a by-election) 135 seats in parliament out of 165. However, Vorster resigned as prime minister for alleged health reasons on 28 September 1978.

Background

On 11 February 1975 four liberal MPs led by Harry Schwarz broke away from the United Party and created the Reform Party. The party merged with the Progressive Party on 25 July 1975 to form the Progressive Reform Party. In 1977 another group of United Party members left the party to form the Committee for a United Opposition, which then joined the Progressive Reform Party to form the Progressive Federal Party. This proved to realign the opposition in Parliament, as the PFP became the official opposition party.

Electoral system

The members of the House of Assembly were elected in single-member constituencies via first-past-the-post voting. The Senate consisted of 51 members: 43 elected by the electoral colleges of the country's four provinces (16 for the Transvaal, 11 for the Cape Province, and eight each for the Orange Free State and Natal) and eight appointed by the State President (two for each province). Only White South Africans were eligible to vote.

Results

House of Assembly

Due to the death of the National Party candidate in the Springs constituency, one seat was left vacant until a by-election was held, which was won by the NP.

Notes

References

Alexander, Douglas. (1979-07-31). "South Africa Opposition Leader falls". The Age.
''South Africa: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa'', 1985, pp. 180–182

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

general-elections-in-south-africa 1977-elections-in-africa 1977-elections-in-south-africa november-1977-in-africa election-and-referendum-articles-with-incomplete-results

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1977 South African general election — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report