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164 of the 165 seats in the House of Assembly 83 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Registered | 2,193,635 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 48.52% ( 3.35pp) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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South Africaportal |
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. 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, [1] 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.
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.
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. [2]
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
National Party | 685,035 | 65.34 | 134 | +12 | |
Progressive Federal Party | 177,705 | 16.95 | 17 | +11 | |
New Republic Party | 127,335 | 12.15 | 10 | New | |
Herstigte Nasionale Party | 34,159 | 3.26 | 0 | 0 | |
South African Party | 17,915 | 1.71 | 3 | New | |
Other parties and independents | 6,271 | 0.60 | 0 | 0 | |
Vacant | 1 | – | |||
Total | 1,048,420 | 100.00 | 165 | –6 | |
Valid votes | 1,048,420 | 98.50 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 15,930 | 1.50 | |||
Total votes | 1,064,350 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 2,193,635 | 48.52 | |||
Source: Official Yearbook [2] |
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The 1921 Canadian federal election was held on December 6, 1921, to elect members of the House of Commons of Canada of the 14th Parliament of Canada. The Union government that had governed Canada through the First World War was defeated, and replaced by a Liberal government under the young leader William Lyon Mackenzie King. A new third party, the Progressive Party, won the second most seats in the election.
The Democratic Party (DP) was the name of the South African political party now called the Democratic Alliance. Although the Democratic Party name dates from 1989, the party existed under other labels throughout the apartheid years, when it was the Parliamentary opposition to the ruling National Party's policies.
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A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more than one consecutive term may be considered a dominant party. Some dominant parties were called the natural governing party, given their length of time in power.
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Colin Wells Eglin was a South African politician best known for having served as national leader of the opposition from 1977–79 and 1986–87. He represented Sea Point in the South African Parliament from 1958–61 and from 1974–2004. Described by Nelson Mandela as "one of the architects of democracy", Eglin played a leading role in the drafting of the country's post-apartheid constitution.
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