1961 South African general election

1961 South African general election
	18 October 1961
All 156 general roll seats in the House of Assembly; 79 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	44.55% ( 29.81pp)
	Results by province
Prime Minister before election; Hendrik Verwoerd; National	Elected Prime Minister ; Hendrik Verwoerd; National

General elections were held in South Africa on 18 October 1961.[1] They were the first general elections after South Africa became a republic following the 1960 South African referendum. The National Party under Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd won a majority in the House of Assembly.

The National Union Party - led by J.D. du P. Basson and ex-Chief Justice Henry Allan Fagan in alliance with the United Party - had been formed as a "bridge" to the United Party for moderate nationalists who were unhappy with Verwoerd's leadership, but the party failed and later merged with the United Party.

The elections also saw the first general election appearance of the liberal Progressive Party, which had broken away from the United Party in 1959. The new party retained one MP, in the form of Helen Suzman. She was to remain its sole parliamentary representative until 1974.

Changes in franchise

End of black representation

During the previous Parliament the seats of the three MPs and four Senators representing black South Africans had been abolished. The 1961 election produced the first Parliament with no representation at all for black South Africans.[2]

Coloured Representative Members

The second election for the four Coloured representative members took place on 4 October 1961, before the (white voters only) general election on 18 October 1961. Under the Separate Representation of Voters Act 1951, the members were to serve until the dissolution of the new Parliament.

The four seats were won by Independents, with United Party support. The recently formed Progressive Party did not contest the four vacancies.[3]

Reduction in voting age

This was the first election after the passage of the Electoral Law Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1958, which reduced the voting age for white voters from 21 to 18.[4]

Delimitation of electoral divisions

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division, for general roll voters in the four provinces. The representation by province, under the eleventh delimitation report of 1958, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1953) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.[5]

This was only the second general election, in South African history, where the boundaries were unchanged from the previous election.

Provinces	Cape	Natal	Orange Free State	Transvaal	Total
Divisions	52 (54)	16 (15)	14 (13)	68	150

Composition at the dissolution

At the end of the 12th Parliament elected since the Union of 1910, when it was dissolved in 1961, the House of Assembly consisted of two groups of members. White voters were represented by 156 general roll members and coloured voters in Cape Province by four white MPs known at the time as Coloured Representative Members (CRM).

The general election only affected the representatives of white voters. The other members were elected on a different date (see above).

The representation by party and province, at the dissolution was:-[6]

Province	National	United	Progressive	National Union	CRM	Total
Cape (general)	33	14	5	-	-	52
Cape (CRM)	-	-	-	-	4	4
Natal	2	11	3	-	-	16
Orange Free State	14	-	-	-	-	14
South-West Africa	5	-	-	1	-	6
Transvaal	48	17	3	-	-	68
Total	102	42	11	1	4	160

Results



Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Party	370,395	46.44	105	+2
	United Party	281,361	35.28	49	–4
	Progressive Party	69,045	8.66	1	New
	National Union	50,279	6.30	1	New
	Conservative Workers' Party	8,554	1.07	0	New
	United National South West Party	6,856	0.86	0	0
	Independent Republican Party	2,903	0.36	0	New
	Labour Party	2,461	0.31	0	0
	Independents	5,707	0.72	0	0
Coloured Representative Members				4	0
Total		797,561	100.00	160	–3

Valid votes		797,561	99.44
Invalid/blank votes		4,518	0.56
Total votes		802,079	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,811,160	44.29
Source: Potgieter[7]

By province

Province	National	United	Progressive	National Union	Independents	Total
Cape (general)	34	18	0	0	0	52
Cape (CRM)	0	0	0	0	4	4
Natal	2	14	0	0	0	16
Orange Free State	14	0	0	0	0	14
South-West Africa	6	0	0	0	0	6
Transvaal	49	17	1	1	0	68
Total	105	49	1	1	4	160

References

Stultz, Newell M.; Butler, Jeffrey (March 1963). "The South African General Election of 1961". Political Science Quarterly. Academy of Political Science. 78 (1): 86–110. doi:10.2307/2146669. JSTOR 2146669.
In No Uncertain Terms, page 44.
Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 1961–1962, page 18449
Horrell, Muriel. A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1957–1958 (PDF). South African Institute of Race Relations. p. 10. Retrieved 28 June 2011.
South Africa 1982, page 129 (table setting out delimitations of seats by province, the relevant one being that of 1958)
Keesing's Contemporary Archives, 1960–1961, page 18449
Dirk J. Potgieter (1971) Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Volume 4, p273

In No Uncertain Terms, by Helen Suzman (Mandarin Paperback 1994)
Keesing's Contemporary Archives
South Africa 1982 Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications

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[1] Stultz, Newell M.; Butler, Jeffrey (March 1963). "The South African General Election of 1961". Political Science Quarterly. Academy of Political Science. 78 (1): 86–110. doi:10.2307/2146669. JSTOR 2146669.

[2] In No Uncertain Terms, page 44.

[3] Keesing’s Contemporary Archives, 1961–1962, page 18449

[4] Horrell, Muriel. A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa, 1957–1958 (PDF). South African Institute of Race Relations. p. 10. Retrieved 28 June 2011.

[5] South Africa 1982, page 129 (table setting out delimitations of seats by province, the relevant one being that of 1958)

[6] Keesing's Contemporary Archives, 1960–1961, page 18449

[7] Dirk J. Potgieter (1971) Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Volume 4, p273

Elections and referendums in South Africa
General elections	1910 1915 1920 1921 1924 1929 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1961 1966 1970 1974 1977 1981 1984 1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Provincial elections	1910 1917 1935 1936 1943 1949 1954 1959 1965 1970 1974 1981 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Municipal elections	1995–96 2000 2006 2011 2016 2021
Referendums	1960 1983 1992
See also: Elections and referendums in the Boer republics and South African colonies Elections and referendums in South African Bantustans