Marico (House of Assembly of South Africa constituency)

Marico
Former constituency for the South African House of Assembly
Province	Transvaal
Electorate	11,197 (1977)
Former constituency
Created	1910
Abolished	1981
Number of members	1
Last MHA	L. M. Theunissen (NP)
Replaced by	Lichtenburg

Marico was a constituency in the Transvaal Province of South Africa, which existed from 1910 to 1974. Named after the Marico River and/or the village of Groot Marico, it covered a rural area in the western Transvaal. Throughout its existence it elected one member to the House of Assembly and one to the Transvaal 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. In the Transvaal Colony, and its predecessor the South African Republic, the vote was restricted to white men, and as such, elections in the Transvaal 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

Like most of the rural Transvaal, Marico had a largely Afrikaans-speaking electorate. In its early years, it was a marginal seat with a slight lean towards the South African Party, whose leader Jan Smuts was popular in the Transvaal. Its first MP, Lodewijk Arnoldus Slabbert Lemmer, stood down in 1924, and at that election the seat was won by Johannes Jacobus Pienaar for the National Party. Pienaar followed J. B. M. Hertzog into the United Party in 1934, and held his seat in 1938, but left parliament shortly after the election. The resulting by-election was won by Reformed Church minister Charl Wynand Markelbach du Toit for the Purified National Party, the faction of the NP that had rejected the UP merger. From that point on, Marico was a Nationalist seat, though not a truly safe one until the UP decline of the 1950s. It was abolished in 1981, at which point most of it became part of the Lichtenburg constituency.

Members

Election		Member	Party
	1910	L. A. S. Lemmer	Het Volk
	1915		South African
	1920
	1921
	1924	J. J. Pienaar	National
	1929
	1933
	1934		United
	1938
	1938 by	C. W. M. du Toit	GNP
	1943	D. C. S. Grobler	HNP
	1948
	1953	J. A. de Kock	National
	1958	M. S. F. Grobler
	1961
	1966
	1970
	1974
	1977	L. M. Theunissen
	1981	Constituency abolished

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

Detailed results

Elections in the 1910s

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

General election 1910: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Het Volk	L. A. S. Lemmer	844	83.1	New
	Independent	J. W. Viljoen	172	16.9	New
Majority			672	66.2	N/A
	Het Volk win (new seat)

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

General election 1915: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	L. A. S. Lemmer	1,194	63.1	−20.0
	National	G. I. M. Wolmarans	698	36.9	New
Majority			496	26.2	N/A
Turnout			1,892	74.5	N/A
	South African hold		Swing	N/A

Elections in the 1920s

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

General election 1920: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	L. A. S. Lemmer	1,126	51.4	−11.7
	National	A. W. de Waal	1,064	48.6	+11.7
Majority			62	2.8	−23.4
Turnout			2,190	74.9	+0.4
	South African hold		Swing	-11.7

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

General election 1921: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	South African	L. A. S. Lemmer	1,211	50.0	−1.4
	National	A. W. de Waal	1,211	50.0	+1.4
Majority			0	0.0	−2.8
Turnout			2,422	76.1	+1.2
	South African hold		Swing	-1.4

Election decided by lot.

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1924 South African general election § Marico.[ edit ]

General election 1924: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. J. Pienaar	1,367	61.9	+11.9
	South African	P. J. W. du Plessis	828	37.5	−12.5
Rejected ballots			13	0.6	N/A
Majority			539	24.4	+24.4
Turnout			2,208	86.8	+10.7
	National gain from South African		Swing	+12.2

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1929 South African general election § Marico.[ edit ]

General election 1929: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. J. Pienaar	1,233	57.2	−4.7
	South African	S. F. Hummelen	906	42.0	+4.5
Rejected ballots			18	0.8	+0.2
Majority			327	15.2	−9.2
Turnout			2,157	87.9	+1.1
	National hold		Swing	-4.6

Elections in the 1930s

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1933 South African general election § Marico.[ edit ]

General election 1933: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	National	J. J. Pienaar	Unopposed
	National hold

This section is an excerpt from Results of the 1938 South African general election § Marico.[ edit ]

General election 1938: Marico

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United	J. J. Pienaar	2,533	53.5	N/A
	Purified National	H. C. M. Fourie	2,179	46.0	New
Rejected ballots			24	0.5	N/A
Majority			354	7.5	N/A
Turnout			4,736	91.9	N/A
	United hold		Swing	N/A

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).
4. South Africa 1980/81: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa. Johannesburg: Chris van Rensburg Publications.