Frankfort (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Frankfort
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Orange Free State
Electorate	8,898 (1948)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1953
Number of members	1
Last MHA	J. L. B. Döhne (NP)
Replaced by	Heilbron-Frankfort

Frankfort was a constituency in the Orange Free State Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1953. Named after the town of Frankfort, the seat covered a rural area in the northeast of the province. 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

Frankfort, like most of the Orange Free State, was a highly conservative seat throughout its existence and had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. Its first MP, Thomas Phillip Brain, died in office in 1913, and the resulting by-election was one of the first contested by J. B. M. Hertzog's new National Party - as in the Bethlehem by-election held on the same day, the new party won the seat unopposed. It remained a relatively safe NP seat for the next twenty years, with Johannes Bernardus Wessels representing the seat through most of that time and generally winning around two-thirds of the vote - in 1924 and 1933, he was unopposed.

In 1934, Hertzog joined forces with Jan Smuts and the SAP to create the United Party, a move that was controversial with his Afrikaner base, and nineteen Nationalist MPs broke away to form the Purified National Party under D. F. Malan's leadership. Wessels stayed loyal to Hertzog, however, and on his departure from Parliament in 1935, the resulting by-election saw the UP hold the seat by a relatively safe margin. They held it again in 1938, with Frankfort MP Hermanus Nicolaas Wilhelmus Botha winning the second-highest vote percentage of any UP candidate in the province, beaten only by Colin Fraser Steyn in Bloemfontein. In 1943, however, Botha retired, and the seat was captured by Jacob Louis Bredeus Döhne of the Herenigde Nasionale Party, who held the seat until its merger with neighbouring Heilbron in 1953.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	T. P. Brain	Orangia Unie
	1914 by	N. W. Serfontein	National
	1915	J. B. Wessels
	1920
	1921
	1924
	1929
	1933
	1934		United
	1936 by	H. N. W. Botha
	1938
	1943	J. L. B. Döhne	HNP
	1948
	1953	constituency abolished

^{[2] [3]}

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Frankfort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Orangia Unie	T. P. Brain	Unopposed
	Orangia Unie win (new seat)

Frankfort by-election, 9 February 1914 ^[2]

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	N. W. Serfontein	Unopposed
	National hold

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

General election 1915: Frankfort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. B. Wessels	1,209	61.3	New
	South African	H. N. W. Botha	763	38.7	N/A
Majority			446	22.6	N/A
Turnout			1,972	73.1	N/A
	National gain from South African		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1920 South African general election § Frankfort.[ edit ]

General election 1920: Frankfort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. B. Wessels	1,358	67.4	+6.1
	South African	H. N. W. Botha	658	32.6	−6.1
Majority			700	34.8	+12.2
Turnout			2,016	68.1	−5.0
	National hold		Swing	+6.1

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1921 South African general election § Frankfort.[ edit ]

General election 1921: Frankfort

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. B. Wessels	1,351	68.1	+0.7
	South African	H. N. W. Botha	632	31.9	−0.7
Majority			719	36.2	+1.4
Turnout			1,983	63.7	−4.4
	National hold		Swing	+0.7

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).