Albany (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Albany
Albanie
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Location of Albany within South Africa (1981)
Province	Cape of Good Hope
Electorate	16,609 (1989)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1994
Number of members	1
Last MHA	Errol Moorcroft (DP)
Replaced by	Eastern Cape

Albany was a constituency in the Cape Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1994. It was named after the district of Albany, which covered parts of today's Eastern Cape province, and its main population centre was Grahamstown (today known as Makhanda). Throughout this time it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Cape Provincial Council.

Franchise notes

When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, the electoral qualifications in use in each pre-existing colony were kept in place. The Cape Colony had implemented a “colour-blind” franchise known as the Cape Qualified Franchise, which included all adult literate men owning more than £75 worth of property (controversially raised from £25 in 1892), and this initially remained in effect after the colony became the Cape Province. As of 1908, 22,784 out of 152,221 electors in the Cape Colony were “Native or Coloured”. Eligibility to serve in Parliament and the Provincial Council, however, was restricted to whites from 1910 onward.

The first challenge to the Cape Qualified Franchise came with the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 and the Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, which extended the vote to women and removed property qualifications for the white population only – non-white voters remained subject to the earlier restrictions. In 1936, the Representation of Natives Act removed all black voters from the common electoral roll and introduced three “Native Representative Members”, white MPs elected by the black voters of the province and meant to represent their interests in particular. A similar provision was made for Coloured voters with the Separate Representation of Voters Act, 1951, and although this law was challenged by the courts, it went into effect in time for the 1958 general election, which was thus held with all-white voter rolls for the first time in South African history. The all-white franchise would continue until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994. ^[1]

History

The seat was a stronghold for the United Party and its predecessors, who held the seat from its creation until the party's collapse in the 1970s. Its first MP was Leander Starr Jameson, leader of the Unionist Party, who won it unopposed in the first general election, and uncontested elections were the norm throughout the seat's early existence – the South African Party contested it in 1915 and the National Party in 1953, but other than that the seat was only contested by independents for the first fifty years of its existence.

Starting from 1966, the National Party began contesting Albany regularly, but the UP maintained enough of a hold on the seat that it only ever became marginal. Errol Moorcroft, Albany's final MP, first won the seat in 1981, initially representing the Progressive Federal Party and later joining the Democratic Party. He was defeated by the National Party's J. H. van de Vyver in 1987, but returned in 1989. In this, the last election held under apartheid and with a first-past-the-post electoral system, it was the only rural seat in the Cape to be won by the DP.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	Leander Starr Jameson	Unionist
	1915	Frederick van der Riet
	1920
	1921		South African
	1924	R. H. Struben
	1929
	1933
	1938	T. B. Bowker	United Party
	1943
	1948
	1953
	1958
	1961	Colin Bennett
	1966	William Deacon
	1970
	1974
	1977	R. de V. Olckers	National
	1981	Errol Moorcroft	PFP
	1987	J. H. van de Wyver	National
	1989	Errol Moorcroft	National

^{[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

General election 1910: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Leander Starr Jameson	Unopposed
	Unionist win (new seat)

General election 1915: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Frederick van der Riet	1,196	51.8	N/A
	South African	W. M. Espin	1,111	48.2	New
Majority			85	3.6	N/A
Turnout			2,307	69.8	N/A
	Unionist hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

General election 1920: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	Frederick van der Riet	Unopposed
	Unionist hold

General election 1921: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	Frederick van der Riet	Unopposed
	South African hold

General election 1924: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	R. H. Struben	1,744	58.7	N/A
	Independent	F. G. Reynolds	1,225	41.3	New
Majority			519	17.4	N/A
Turnout			2,969	81.3	N/A
	South African hold		Swing	N/A

General election 1929: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	R. H. Struben	Unopposed
	South African hold

Elections in the 1930s

General election 1933: Albany ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	R. H. Struben	Unopposed
	South African hold

References

1. "EISA South Africa: Historical franchise arrangements". Eisa.org.za. Archived from the original on 9 May 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
2. Schoeman, B.M. (1977). Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976. Pretoria: Aktuele Publikasies.
3. South Africa 1980/81: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications.
4. South Africa 1983: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications.
5. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 10751. 22 May 1987. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.
6. Government Gazette of South Africa, No. 12109. 20 September 1989. Pretoria: Government of South Africa.