Bloemfontein (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Bloemfontein
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	11,842 (1953)
Former constituency
Created	1910 1938
Abolished	1920 1958
Number of members	1
Last MHA	J. W. J. C. du Plessis (NP)
Replaced by	Bloemfontein East Bloemfontein West

Bloemfontein (known between 1938 and 1958 as Bloemfontein City (Afrikaans: Bloemfontein-Stad)) was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1920 and from 1938 to 1958. It covered the urban area of Bloemfontein, the provincial capital and the judicial capital of South Africa. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly.

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. In the Orange River Colony, and its predecessor the Orange Free State, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Orange Free State Province were held on a whites-only franchise from the beginning. The franchise was also restricted by property and education qualifications until the 1933 general election, following the passage of the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930 and the Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931. From then on, the franchise was given to all white citizens aged 21 or over. Non-whites remained disenfranchised until the end of apartheid and the introduction of universal suffrage in 1994. ^[1]

History

While slightly more liberal than the rest of the Free State, Bloemfontein was still only a marginal seat, seeing fierce contests between the United and National parties in its later years. In its first iteration, however, it was the only Free State seat held by the Unionist Party, who took it over South African Party and Labour opposition in 1910 and held it unopposed in 1915 - the only seat in the province not to fall to the National Party in the party's first general election. In 1920, Bloemfontein was reconfigured into a North and a South seat, an arrangement that lasted through most of the 1920s and 30s, but in 1938, the City/District division returned.

The 1938 election was unusual in the Free State's electoral history, because the otherwise-dominant National Party was split down the middle. The party leadership, including Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog, had formed the United Party alongside the SAP, but this merger was opposed by a large number of Afrikaner nationalists who formed the Purified National Party under the leadership of D. F. Malan. These two camps fought close and bitter contests in much of the rural Free State, but Bloemfontein was comfortably held by the United Party's Colin Fraser Steyn, who had previously represented Bloemfontein South for the NP in the 1920s. In 1943, with Hertzog dead and most of the old NP reunited under Malan's leadership, every other seat in the province fell again, but Steyn held on until 1953, at which point the seat fell to Nationalist "Sand" du Plessis. In 1958, Bloemfontein was split into an East and a West constituency, and du Plessis left parliament, being appointed Administrator of the Free State the following year.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	C. L. Botha	Unionist
	1915	H. F. Blaine
	1920	constituency abolished

Election		Member	Party
	1938	Colin Fraser Steyn	United
	1943
	1948
	1953	J. W. J. C. du Plessis	National
	1958	constituency abolished

^{[2] [3]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1910 South African general election § Bloemfontein.[ edit ]

General election 1910: Bloemfontein

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	C. L. Botha	863	51.9	New
	Orangia Unie	W. Ehrlich	653	39.3	New
	Labour	J. Duff	146	8.8	New
Majority			310	12.6	N/A
	Unionist win (new seat)

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1915 South African general election § Bloemfontein.[ edit ]

General election 1915: Bloemfontein

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Unionist	H. F. Blaine	Unopposed
	Unionist 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. Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa (1972). "House of Assembly" (vol. 5, pp. 617–636). Cape Town: Nasionale Opvoedkundige Uitgewery (Nasou).