General elections were held in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
on 29 April 1981. The
National Party, under the leadership of
P. W. Botha
Pieter Willem Botha, ( , ; 12 January 1916 – 31 October 2006) was a South African politician who served as the last Prime Minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and as the first executive State President of South Africa from 1984 until ...
since 1978, lost some support, but achieved another
landslide victory
A landslide victory is an election result in which the winning Candidate#Candidates in elections, candidate or political party, party achieves a decisive victory by an overwhelming margin, securing a very large majority of votes or seats far beyo ...
, winning 131 of 165 directly elected seats in 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 ...
.
[SOUTH AFRICA Date of Elections: 29 April 1981]
International Parliamentary Union
Meanwhile, the
Progressive Federal Party – led since 1979 by
Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, an
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
– increased its representation to 26 seats, thereby consolidating its position as the
official opposition
Parliamentary opposition is a form of political opposition to a designated government, particularly in a Westminster-based parliamentary system. This article uses the term ''government'' as it is used in Parliamentary systems, i.e. meaning ''t ...
. The
Herstigte Nasionale Party
The Herstigte Nasionale Party () is a South African political party which was formed as a far-right splinter group of the now defunct National Party in 1969. The party name was commonly abbreviated as HNP, evoking the Herenigde Nasionale Pa ...
(HNP) now under the leadership of
Jaap Marais and representing right-wing
Afrikaner
Afrikaners () are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers who first arrived at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Casting''. Encyclopæd ...
conservatives, received 14.1% of the vote. The HNP's tally marked a historic result; twice that of the former official opposition NRP, and within a touching distance of the liberal PFP, but failed to win a seat under the
first-past-the-post
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 votes, first-preference, and the cand ...
system due to splitting its voter base with the NP in more liberal areas and being decisively defeated in the Afrikaner heartlands.
[ In 1985, under the same parliament, HNP candidate Louis Stofberg managed a win in a by-election for ]Sasolburg
Sasolburg is a city in the Free State province of South Africa. The city is located in the northern part of the province and is the seat of the Metsimaholo Local Municipality.
The city lies 13 kilometres south of the Gauteng province and form ...
, but the success was soon overrun by the Conservative Party under NP renegade Andries Treurnicht.
Despite divisions among the opposition, the NP lost three seats compared to its record 1977 result.
Background
The 1981 elections were the first since the abolition of the Senate
A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...
and ongoing constitutional changes meant to bring in a more presidential system. The House of Assembly had become the sole chamber of Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
.
The elections were also the last to be held under the then 1961 constitution, under which South Africa had become a republic, while retaining a Westminster-style parliamentary system. In foreign policy, the Lancaster House Agreement
The Lancaster House Agreement is an agreement signed on 21 December 1979 in Lancaster House, following the conclusion of a constitutional conference where different parties discussed the future of Zimbabwe Rhodesia, formerly known as Rhodesia ...
and the shift to black majority rule and a ZANU–PF
The Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF) is a political organisation which has been the ruling party of Zimbabwe since independence in 1980. The party was led for many years by Robert Mugabe, first as prime minister wi ...
government in newly independent Zimbabwe
file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map
Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...
the preceding year, was likely to have affected the results, including boost for the HNP and increased white wariness of the government's policy. The Angolan War and Border Wars had also raged on without obvious results, with a South Africa-backed UNITA
The National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (, abbr. UNITA) is the second-largest political party in Angola. Founded in 1966, UNITA fought alongside the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Liberat ...
in fierce opposition to the government of the MPLA
The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (, abbr. MPLA), from 1977–1990 called the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola – Labour Party (), is an Angolan social democratic political party. The MPLA fought against the P ...
in Luanda. Exceeding costs, and failure to accomplish strategic goals would have alienated both liberal and more hawkish voters dissatisfied with developments in a continent which, a decade earlier, South Africa would have dominated militarily. The 1976 Soweto uprising
The Soweto uprising, also known as the Soweto riots, was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976.
Students from various schools began to p ...
and following sanctions and boycotts still affected the South African economy, causing stagnant wages, unemployment and psychological alienation driving increased voter dissatisfaction.
Although technically a Westminster system, Botha's initial reforms of the House of Assembly now included twelve additional members, four of whom were appointed by the State President and eight were indirectly elected by the directly elected members.''The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa''
Volume 13, Institute of Foreign and Comparative Law, University of South Africa, 1981, page 354 These reforms secured the NP's existing majority, which became even more important with the planned introduction of the
Tricameral Parliament
The Tricameral Parliament, officially the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa, was the legislature of South Africa between 1984 and 1994, established by the South African Constitution of 1983, which gave a limited political voice to ...
in 1984, with the NP's majority role becoming more fragile with the introduction of Coloured and Indian representatives, albeit in different chambers. The elected additional members were chosen by means of proportional representation, by means of the
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 vot ...
.
[
]
Results
Of the twelve appointed and indirectly elected members, 11 were National Party representatives and one was from the Progressive Federal Party.[
]
By province
See also
*18th South African Parliament
The 18th South African Parliament was the eighteenth Parliament of South Africa to convene since the unification of South Africa in 1910 and the sixth to convene since the adoption of the South African Constitution of 1961, republican constitution ...
References
{{South African elections
General elections in South Africa
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
Election and referendum articles with incomplete results