1920 South African general election

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1920 South African general election
Red Ensign of South Africa (1912-1951).svg
  1915 10 March 1920 1921  

All 134 seats in the House of Assembly
68 seats needed for a majority
Registered421,790
Turnout66.94% (Decrease2.svg 4.63pp)
 First partySecond party
  JBM Hertzog - SA (cropped).jpg Genl JC Smuts (cropped).jpg
Leader J. B. M. Hertzog Jan Smuts
Party National South African
Leader's seat Smithfield Pretoria West
Last election29.41%, 27 seats36.67%, 54 seats
Seats won4341
Seat changeIncrease2.svg 16Decrease2.svg 13
Popular vote90,512101,227
Percentage32.62%36.48%
SwingIncrease2.svg 3.21ppDecrease2.svg 0.19pp

 Third partyFourth party
 
SirThomasSmartt.jpg
Kolonel Cresswell (cropped).jpg
Leader Thomas Smartt Frederic Creswell
Party Unionist Labour
Leader's seat Fort Beaufort Troyeville
Last election19.42%, 39 seats9.63%, 4 seats
Seats won2521
Seat changeDecrease2.svg 14Increase2.svg 17
Popular vote38,94640,639
Percentage14.03%14.65%
SwingDecrease2.svg 5.39ppIncrease2.svg 5.01pp

1920 South African general election map - results by province.svg
Results by province

Prime Minister before election

Jan Smuts
South African

Elected Prime Minister

Jan Smuts
South African

General elections were held in South Africa on 10 March 1920 to elect the 134 members of the House of Assembly. [1] This was for the third Union Parliament.

Contents

The National Party (NP) won the largest number of seats, but not a majority. The South African Party (SAP) minority government continued in office, with Unionist Party support in Parliament. This was the third successive term of SAP government, but only the second period with General Jan Smuts as Prime Minister. The first SAP premier (General Louis Botha) had died in office in 1919, during the previous Parliament.

The National Party became the official opposition for the first time.

Delimitation of electoral divisions

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 third delimitation report of 1919, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1913) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged. [2]

ProvincesCapeNatalOrange Free StateTransvaalTotal
Divisions51171749 (45)134 (130)

Results

The vote totals in the table below may not give a complete picture of the balance of political opinion, because of unopposed elections (where no votes were cast) and because contested seats may not have been fought by a candidate from all major parties.

South African House of Assembly 1920.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
South African Party 101,22736.4841–13
National Party 90,51232.6243+16
Labour Party 40,63914.6521+17
Unionist Party 38,94614.0325–14
Socialist League 2020.0700
Independents5,9682.153–3
Vacant1
Total277,494100.00134+4
Valid votes277,49498.28
Invalid/blank votes4,8671.72
Total votes282,361100.00
Registered voters/turnout421,79066.94
Source: Potgieter [3]

References

  1. "The South African General Election was held on March 10th". The Spectator. London. 20 March 1920. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
  2. South Africa 1982, page 129
  3. Dirk J. Potgieter (1971) Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Volume 4, p. 272