|
House Of Assembly (South Africa)
The House of Assembly (known in Afrikaans as the , or "People's Council") was the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa from 1910 to 1981, the unicameralism, sole parliamentary chamber between 1981 and 1984, and latterly the white representative house of the Tricameral Parliament from 1984 to 1994, when it was replaced by the current National Assembly of South Africa, National Assembly. Throughout its history, it was exclusively constituted of white members who were elected to office predominantly by White South African, white citizens, though until 1960 and 1970, respectively, some Black Africans and Coloureds in the Cape Province voted under a restricted form of suffrage. The old House of Assembly chamber was severely damaged in a 2022 Parliament of South Africa fire, fire in January 2022. Method of election The members were elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member district, single-member electoral divisions. Following the abolition of the Senate of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lower House
A lower house is the lower chamber of a bicameral legislature, where the other chamber is the upper house. Although styled as "below" the upper house, in many legislatures worldwide, the lower house has come to wield more power or otherwise exert significant political influence. Common attributes In comparison with the upper house, lower houses frequently display certain characteristics (though they vary by jurisdiction). Powers In a parliamentary system, the lower house: * In the modern era, has much more power, usually due to restrictions on the upper house. ** Exceptions to this are Australia, Italy, and Romania, where the upper and lower houses have similar power. * Is able to override the upper house in some ways. * Can vote a motion of no confidence against the government, as well as vote for or against any proposed candidate for head of government at the beginning of the parliamentary term. In a presidential system, the lower house: * Generally has less power th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-past-the-post Voting
First-past-the-post (FPTP)—also called choose-one, first-preference plurality (FPP), or simply plurality—is a single-winner voting rule. Voters mark one candidate as their favorite, or first-preference, and the candidate with more first-preference votes than any other candidate (a ''plurality'') is elected, even if they do not have more than half of votes (a '' majority''). FPP has been used to elect part of the British House of Commons since the Middle Ages before spreading throughout the British Empire. Throughout the 20th century, many countries that previously used FPP have abandoned it in favor of other electoral systems, including the former British colonies of Australia and New Zealand. FPP is still officially used in the majority of US states for most elections. However, the combination of partisan primaries and a two-party system in these jurisdictions means that most American elections behave effectively like two-round systems, in which the first round ch ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coloured Vote Constitutional Crisis
The Coloured vote constitutional crisis, also known as the Coloured vote case, was a constitutional crisis that occurred in the Union of South Africa during the 1950s as the result of an attempt by the Nationalist government to remove coloured voters in the Union's Cape Province from the common voters' rolls. It developed into a dispute between the judiciary (in particular the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court) and the other branches of government (Parliament and the executive) over the power of Parliament to amend an entrenched clause in the South Africa Act (the constitution) and the power of the Appellate Division to overturn the amendment as unconstitutional. The crisis ended when the government enlarged the Senate and altered its method of election, allowing the amendment to be successfully enacted. Background Before the creation of the Union of South Africa, elections in the Cape Colony were conducted on the basis of the qualified franchise. This meant th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Separate Representation Of Voters Act
The Separate Representation of Voters Act No. 46 was introduced in South Africa on 18 June 1951. Part of the legislation during the apartheid era, the National Party introduced it to enforce racial segregation, and was part of a deliberate process to remove all non-white people from the voters' roll and revoke the Cape Qualified Franchise system. This act was declared invalid by the Supreme Court when challenged in the case of ''Harris v Minister of the Interior 1952(2) SA 428(AD)''; this gave rise to the Coloured vote constitutional crisis. The government, however, was able to circumvent the court's decision by increasing the number of Appellate Division judges from five to eleven, and increasing the size of the Senate from forty-eight to eighty-nine. These changes enabled the government to successfully introduce the South Africa Act Amendment Act No 9 of 2 March 1956, effectively overturning the Supreme Court's decision and revalidating the act. This amendment was repeale ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Glasgow Herald
''The Herald'' is a Scottish broadsheet newspaper founded in 1783. ''The Herald'' is the longest running national newspaper in the world and is the eighth oldest daily paper in the world. The title was simplified from ''The Glasgow Herald'' in 1992. Following the closure of the '' Sunday Herald'', the ''Herald on Sunday'' was launched as a Sunday edition on 9 September 2018. History Founding The newspaper was founded by an Edinburgh-born printer called John Mennons in January 1783 as a weekly publication called the ''Glasgow Advertiser''. Mennons' first edition had a global scoop: news of the treaties of Versailles reached Mennons via the Lord Provost of Glasgow just as he was putting the paper together. War had ended with the American colonies, he revealed. ''The Herald'', therefore, is as old as the United States of America, give or take an hour or two. The story was, however, only carried on the back page. Mennons, using the larger of two fonts available to him, put it in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Convention (South Africa)
The National Convention ( Dutch: ''Nationale Conventie'', Afrikaans: ''Nasionale Konvensie''), also known as the Convention on the Closer Union of South Africa or the Closer Union Convention, was a constitutional convention held between 1908 and 1909 in Durban (12 October to 5 November 1908), Cape Town (23 November to 18 December 1908, 11 January to 3 February 1909) and Bloemfontein (3 May to 11 May 1909). The convention led to the adoption of the South Africa Act by the British Parliament and thus to the creation of the Union of South Africa. The four colonies of the area that would become South Africa - the Cape Colony, Natal Colony, the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal Colony - were represented at the convention, along with a delegation from Rhodesia. There were 33 delegates in total, with the Cape being represented by 12, the Transvaal eight, the Orange River five, Natal five, and Rhodesia three. The convention was held behind closed doors, in the fear that a public a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South African Institute Of Race Relations
The South African Institute of Race Relations (IRR) is a research and policy organisation in South Africa. The IRR was founded in 1929 to improve and report upon race relations in South Africa between the politically dominant White South Africans, white group and the Black South African, black, Coloureds, coloured, and Indian South Africans, Indian populations, making the Institute "one of the oldest liberal institutions in the country". The Institute investigates socioeconomic conditions in South Africa, and aims to address issues such as poverty and inequality, and to promote economic growth through promoting a system of limited government, a market economy, private enterprise, freedom of speech, individual liberty, property rights, and the rule of law. The IRR tracks trends in every area of South Africa's development, ranging from business and the economy to crime, living conditions, and politics. Throughout most of its history of opposing Racial segregation, segregation and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Electoral Law Amendment Act, 1958
The Electoral Law Amendment Act, 1958 (Act No. 30 of 1958) was an act of the Parliament of South Africa which reduced the voting age for white voters from 21 to 18. It did not reduce the voting age for black and coloured voters (under the Representation of Natives Act and the Separate Representation of Voters Act respectively) and hence had the effect of further reducing their (already limited) electoral power. The act came into force on 15 September 1958. The next subsequent general election of the House of Assembly House of Assembly is a name given to the legislature or lower house of a bicameral parliament. In some countries this may be at a subnational level. Historically, in British Crown colonies as the colony gained more internal responsible g ... was held on 8 October 1961. The act took the form of a series of amendments to the Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946, and was therefore repealed on 1 February 1980 when that act was repealed and replaced by the Ele ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Entrenched Clause
An entrenched clause or entrenchment clause of a constitution is a provision that makes certain amendments either more difficult or impossible to pass. Overriding an entrenched clause may require a supermajority, a referendum, or the consent of the minority party. The term eternity clause is used in a similar manner in the constitutions of Brazil, the Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Italy, Morocco, Norway, and Turkey, but specifically applies to an entrenched clause that can never be overridden. However, if a constitution provides for a mechanism of its own abolition or replacement, like the German Basic Law does in Article 146, this by necessity provides a "back door" for getting rid of the "eternity clause", too. Any amendment to a constitution that would not satisfy the prerequisites enshrined in a valid entrenched clause would lead to so-called "unconstitutional constitutional law"—that is, an amendment to constitutional law text that appears constitutional by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
South Africa Act 1909
The South Africa Act 1909 (9 Edw. 7. c. 9) was an Act of Parliament (UK), act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created the Union of South Africa out of the former Cape Colony, Cape, Colony of Natal, Natal, Orange River Colony, Orange River, and Transvaal Colony, Transvaal colonies. The act also allowed for potential admission of Southern Rhodesia, Rhodesia into the Union, a proposal rejected by Rhodesian colonists in a Southern Rhodesian government referendum, 1922, 1922 referendum. The draft proposal was supported by the four colonial parliaments, but was opposed by Cape Colony premier William Schreiner, W. P. Schreiner, who raised concerns that it would strip rights from non-white South Africans. The act was the third major piece of legislation passed by the British Parliament to the unite various British colonies and provide some degree of autonomy. This had been done through the British North America Act 1867, which united the Province of Canada (split into Ontario ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
International Parliamentary Union
The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; , UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments. Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing gender parity among legislatures, empowering youth participation in politics, and sustainable development. The organization was established in 1889 as the Inter-Parliamentary Conference. Its founders were statesmen Frédéric Passy of France and William Randal Cremer of the United Kingdom, who sought to create the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations. Initially, IPU membership was reserved for individual parliamentarians, but has since transformed to include the legislatures of sovereign states. As of 2020, the national parliaments of 180 countries are members of the IPU, while 13 regional parliamentary assemblies are associate members. The IPU facilitates the development of international law and institutions, str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Single Transferable Vote
The single transferable vote (STV) or proportional-ranked choice voting (P-RCV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which each voter casts a single vote in the form of a ranked ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternative preferences if their preferred candidate is eliminated or elected with surplus votes, so that their vote is used to elect someone they prefer over others in the running. STV aims to approach proportional representation based on votes cast in the district where it is used, so that each vote is worth about the same as another. STV is a family of multi-winner proportional representation electoral systems. The proportionality of its results and the proportion of votes actually used to elect someone are equivalent to those produced by proportional representation election systems based on lists. STV systems can be thought of as a variation on the largest remainders method that uses candidate-based so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
