18th South African Parliament
The 18th South African Parliament was the eighteenth Parliament of South Africa to convene since the unification of South Africa in 1910 and the sixth to convene since the adoption of the republican constitution in 1961. It was elected in the 1981 South African general election and consisted of the unicameral House of Assembly. The House of Assembly contained 165 members.
18th South African Parliament | |||||
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Overview | |||||
Jurisdiction | South Africa | ||||
Meeting place | Cape Town | ||||
House of Assembly of South Africa | |||||
Members | 165 | ||||
Speaker of the House of Assembly of South Africa | Jannie Loots (until 30 July 1981) J.P. du Toit | ||||
Leader of the Opposition | Frederik van Zyl Slabbert |
Terms of the Parliament of South Africa |
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Three parties were represented in this parliament: the National Party (NP), the Progressive Federal Party (PFP), and the New Republic Party (NRP). The National Party retained a diminished majority: it won 131 of the 165 seats, a decrease from the 134 seats it held in the 17th Parliament.
Summary by province
The table below gives the number of registered voters (all of whom were classified as white under the apartheid legislation) and parliamentary seats, on the day of the election, broken down by province.[1] The provinces are those which existed prior to 1994.
Province | Number of seats | Number of voters | |||||||
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Cape | 55 | 686,738 | |||||||
Natal | 20 | 264,199 | |||||||
Orange Free State | 14 | 178,099 | |||||||
Transvaal | 76 | 1,161,590 | |||||||
Total | 165 | 2,290,626 | |||||||
Parties represented
Party | Seats | |
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National Party | 131 | |
Progressive Federal Party | 26 | |
New Republic Party | 8 |
Members of Parliament
The following is a list of MPs elected in the 1981 general election to the 18th Parliament, which sat until the 1987 general election.[2]
References
- South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, (Chris van Rensburg Publications 198w)
- South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, page 174
- South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, pp. 174-178