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
East London North, like much of the Eastern Cape, was a stronghold of the pro-British side of South African politics and had a largely English-speaking electorate. When it was created in 1924, it largely replaced the abolished seat of Border, and Border MP John Joseph Byron was elected to represent the new seat. He remained in office until 1935, at which point the seat was won by the Dominion Party, a conservative pro-British party who never held another seat outside Natal. In 1946, East London North was retaken by the United Party, which would hold it with a succession of short-lived MPs for the next thirty years. On the UP’s dissolution in 1977, the seat was briefly won by the New Republic Party, another conservative English-speaking party with little presence outside Natal, which however lost it again in 1981 in a tight three-way race against the Nationals and PFP. The National Party would hold East London North for the remainder of its existence.
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