1953 South African general election

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division. The representation by province, under the tenth delimitation report of 1953, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1947) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.[4]

The above table does not include the three native representative seats in Cape Province nor the six South-West African divisions, which were not included in the delimitation of the general roll seats for the Union under the South Africa Act 1909.

At the end of the 10th Union Parliament, when it was dissolved in 1953, the House of Assembly consisted of two groups of members. General roll voters (white voters from the whole Union and South-West Africa and coloured electors in Cape Province and Natal) were represented by 156 members. Black voters in Cape Province were represented by three white MPs, known at the time as Native Representative Members (NRM).

The general election, on 15 April 1953, only affected the representatives of general roll voters. From 1938 the Native Representative Members had fixed terms and were elected on a different date.[5] The overall composition of the House, set out by province before the general election, was as below.[6]

Abbreviations in the province list.

• Orange FS: Orange Free State
• SW Africa: South-West Africa
• NRM: Native Representative Members

Note: The NRM seat, formerly held by the Communist Party, is listed as Independent in the above table. Sam Kahn and his two successors, after the Communist Party dissolved its public organisation and went underground, all claimed to be Independents.

Since the 1948 general election Dr Malan's Reunited National Party had merged with its coalition partner, the Afrikaner Party. The merged party was named the National Party (NP). The government had also strengthened its political position, by conferring six parliamentary seats upon the white population of the territory of South West Africa.

The principal opposition party was the United Party (UP). Since the previous general election, in 1948, the UPs veteran leader Field Marshal Jan Smuts had died. The new Leader of the Opposition was J.G.N. Strauss.

The other parliamentary opposition party was the Labour Party. In 1953, the United Party and the Labour Party had an electoral pact, for the third successive general election.

During the campaign, the Labour leader John Christie died. His seat was consequently contested at a by election after the normal day of the general election poll. It was retained by a new Labour candidate and is included in the totals for the results section of this article,

The NP promoted its policy of apartheid Dr Malan suggested that the white voters could unite around the Nationalist programme. The UP criticised the idea of apartheid as impractical and eventually disastrous. Mr Strauss campaigned alleging that the first task of a South African government should be the suppression of "Native" crime, who created insecurity in the major cities. United Party supporters were optimistic on the eve of the poll of regaining their position as the largest party.[7]

Due to the first-past-the-post system, the Nationalists won 37 more seats than United despite finishing only two percentage points ahead of United in the popular vote. As Cape Coloured voters still exercised this right in the Cape province, the majority among white voters would actually have been higher. This was enough to deliver the Nationalists a second consecutive majority government.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Party	598,718	49.48	94	+15
	United Party	576,474	47.65	57	–8
	Labour Party	34,730	2.87	5	–1
Native Representative Members				3	0
Total		1,209,922	100.00	159	+6
Valid votes		1,209,922	99.29
Invalid/blank votes		8,709	0.71
Total votes		1,218,631	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,385,591	87.95
Source: African Elections Database

• Keesing's Contemporary Archives
• Smuts: A Reappraisal, by Bernard Friedman (George, Allen & Unwin 1975) ISBN 0-04-920045-3
• South Africa 1982 Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications
• The South African Constitution, by H.J. May (3rd edition 1955, Juta & Co)

• S. African elections (1953), AP Archive footage