1961 South African general election

1961 South African general election

18 October 1961 (1961-10-18)
All 156 general roll seats in the House of Assembly 79 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	44.55% ( 29.81pp)
First party Second party   Leader Hendrik Verwoerd De Villiers Graaff Party National United Last election 55.54%, 103 seats 42.57%, 53 seats Seats won 105 49 Seat change 2 4 Popular vote 370,395 261,361 Percentage 46.44% 35.28% Swing 9.10pp 7.29pp   Third party Fourth party   NUP Leader Jan Steytler Henry Allan Fagan Party Progressive National Union Last election – – Seats won 1 1 Seat change New New Popular vote 69,045 50,279 Percentage 8.66% 6.30% Swing New New
Results by province
Prime Minister before election Hendrik Verwoerd National Elected Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd National

General elections were held in South Africa on 18 October 1961. They were the first general elections after South Africa became a republic following the 1960 South African referendum. The National Party under Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd won a majority in the House of Assembly.

The National Union Party - led by J.D. du P. Basson and ex-Chief Justice Henry Allan Fagan in alliance with the United Party - had been formed as a "bridge" to the United Party for moderate nationalists who were unhappy with Verwoerd's leadership, but the party failed and later merged with the United Party.

The elections also saw the first general election appearance of the liberal Progressive Party, which had broken away from the United Party in 1959. The new party retained one MP, in the form of Helen Suzman. She was to remain its sole parliamentary representative until 1974.

Changes in franchise

End of black representation

During the previous Parliament the seats of the three MPs and four Senators representing black South Africans had been abolished. The 1961 election produced the first Parliament with no representation at all for black South Africans.

Coloured Representative Members

The second election for the four Coloured representative members took place on 4 October 1961, before the (white voters only) general election on 18 October 1961. Under the Separate Representation of Voters Act 1951, the members were to serve until the dissolution of the new Parliament.

The four seats were won by Independents, with United Party support. The recently formed Progressive Party did not contest the four vacancies.

Reduction in voting age

This was the first election after the passage of the Electoral Law Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1958, which reduced the voting age for white voters from 21 to 18.

Delimitation of electoral divisions

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division, for general roll voters in the four provinces. The representation by province, under the eleventh delimitation report of 1958, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1953) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.

This was only the second general election, in South African history, where the boundaries were unchanged from the previous election.

Provinces	Cape	Natal	Orange Free State	Transvaal	Total
Divisions	52 (54)	16 (15)	14 (13)	68	150

Composition at the dissolution

At the end of the 12th Parliament elected since the Union of 1910, when it was dissolved in 1961, the House of Assembly consisted of two groups of members. White voters were represented by 156 general roll members and coloured voters in Cape Province by four white MPs known at the time as Coloured Representative Members (CRM).

The general election only affected the representatives of white voters. The other members were elected on a different date (see above).

The representation by party and province, at the dissolution was:-

Province	National	United	Progressive	National Union	CRM	Total
Cape (general)	33	14	5	-	-	52
Cape (CRM)	-	-	-	-	4	4
Natal	2	11	3	-	-	16
Orange Free State	14	-	-	-	-	14
South-West Africa	5	-	-	1	-	6
Transvaal	48	17	3	-	-	68
Total	102	42	11	1	4	160

Results

A total of 70 seats were uncontested, of which 50 were won by the National Party and 20 by the United Party.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Party	370,395	46.44	105	+2
	United Party	281,361	35.28	49	–4
	Progressive Party	69,045	8.66	1	New
	National Union	50,279	6.30	1	New
	Conservative Workers' Party	8,554	1.07	0	New
	United National South West Party	6,856	0.86	0	0
	Independent Republican Party	2,903	0.36	0	New
	Liberal Party	2,461	0.31	0	0
	Independents	5,707	0.72	0	0
Coloured Representative Members				4	0
Total		797,561	100.00	160	–3
Valid votes		797,561	99.44
Invalid/blank votes		4,518	0.56
Total votes		802,079	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,811,160	44.29
Source: Potgieter

By province

Province	National	United	Progressive	National Union	Independents	Total
Cape (general)	34	18	0	0	0	52
Cape (CRM)	0	0	0	0	4	4
Natal	2	14	0	0	0	16
Orange Free State	14	0	0	0	0	14
South-West Africa	6	0	0	0	0	6
Transvaal	49	17	1	1	0	68
Total	105	49	1	1	4	160

By electoral division

Province	Constituency	National	United	National Union	Progressive	Conservative Workers'	Liberal	Independent	Invalid/blank	Total	Registered voters	Turnout
Cape of Good Hope	Albany		6,069		1,175				64	7,308	11,521	63.43
	Aliwal	5,148	3,767						60	8,975	9,679	92.73
	Beaufort West	Unopposed
	Bellville	8,274	3,995						71	12,340	14,953	82.53
	Ceres	Unopposed
	Constantia		7,653				1,115		43	8,811	13,499	65.27
	Cradock	Unopposed
	De Aar—Colesberg	Unopposed
	Fort Beaufort	4,962	3,597						41	8,600	9,388	91.61
	George	7,624		1,379	506				45	9,554	10,967	87.12
	Gordonia	Unopposed
	Graaff-Reinet	Unopposed
	Green Point		Unopposed
	Hottentots-Holland	5,806	4,264						49	10,119	10,926	92.61
	Humansdorp	5,979	3,154						20	9,153	10,414	87.89
	Cape Town Gardens		Unopposed
	Kimberley North	6,566	4,004						71	10,641	12,213	87.13
	Kimberley South	6,359	4,925						43	11,327	12,629	89.69
	King William’s Town		Unopposed
	Kuruman	Unopposed
	Maitland		4,610		1,688			3,703	27	10,028	12,336	81.29
	Malmesbury	Unopposed
	Moorreesburg	Unopposed
	Mossel Bay	Unopposed
	Namakwaland	Unopposed
	East London North		6,158		2,519				58	8,735	12,984	67.28
	East London City		6,053					1,277	40	7,370	12,304	59.90
	Oudtshoorn	Unopposed
	Paarl	7,272	2,893						36	10,201	11,676	87.37
	Parow	Unopposed
	Pinelands		6,433		2,881				68	9,382	12,730	73.70
	Piketberg	Unopposed
	Port Elizabeth North	6,763		3,995					29	10,787	13,842	77.93
	Port Elizabeth Central		Unopposed
	Port Elizabeth South		5,896		3,166				74	9,136	13,189	69.27
	Port Elizabeth West		Unopposed
	Prieska	5,059	3,244						40	8,343	9,100	91.68
	Queenstown	5,706	5,337						78	11,121	11,440	97.21
	Rondebosch		Unopposed
	Sea Point		6,199		3,428				53	9,680	12,997	74.48
	Simonstown		6,244		1,612				60	7,916	13,071	60.56
	Somerset East	Unopposed
	Salt River		4,670		2,190				56	6,916	10,757	64.29
	Stellenbosch	7,465		2,556	721				43	10,785	13,247	81.41
	Swellendam	5,552		3,762					61	9,375	10,277	91.22
	Transkeian Territories		Unopposed
	Uitenhage	Unopposed
	False Bay	6,731		3,781					57	10,569	12,750	82.89
	Vasco	Unopposed
	Vryburg	Unopposed
	Worcester	6,832	3,175						56	10,063	11,424	88.09
	Wynberg		6,311					1,911	18	8,240	11,402	72.27
Natal	Drakensberg		Unopposed
	Durban—Berea		5,451		4,568				58	10,077	12,986	77.60
	Durban—Musgrave		5,181		4,222				33	9,436	12,575	75.04
	Durban North		6,167		3,991				91	10,249	13,463	76.13
	Durban Point		Unopposed
	Durban Central		5,349					504	43	5,896	12,167	48.46
	Durban-Umbilo		Unopposed
	Durban Umlazi		Unopposed
	Natal South Coast		4,956		2,367			115	104	7,542	10,164	74.20
	Newcastle	5,919		3,646					65	9,630	11,123	86.58
	Pietermaritzburg District		4,014		3,839				83	7,936	11,488	69.08
	Pietermaritzburg City		3,915		3,282				129	7,326	13,621	53.78
	Pinetown		5,032		3,064				79	8,175	11,506	71.05
	Umhlatuzana		Unopposed
	Vryheid	5,555		2,804					109	8,468	9,768	86.69
	Zululand	4,200	5,856		104				55	10,215	11,738	87.03
Orange Free State	Bethlehem	Unopposed
	Bloemfontein District	Unopposed
	Bloemfontein East	7,485	3,201						16	10,702	14,830	72.16
	Bloemfontein West	8,076	3,645						16	11,737	14,678	79.96
	Fauresmith—Boshof	Unopposed
	Harrismith	Unopposed
	Heilbron	Unopposed
	Kroonstad	7,524	1,837						65	9,426	11,133	84.67
	Ladybrand	Unopposed
	Odendaalsrus	7,797	2,304						49	10,150	13,445	75.49
	Smithfield	Unopposed
	Vredefort	Unopposed
	Welkom	8,217	3,890						32	12,139	15,904	76.33
	Winburg	Unopposed
South-West Africa	Etosha	Unopposed
	Karas	2,954	2,113						26	5,093	5,722	89.01
	Middelland	3,264	2,135						40	5,439	6,560	82.91
	Namib	Unopposed
	Omaruru	Unopposed
	Windhoek	3,709	2,608						74	6,391	8,021	79.68
Transvaal	Alberton	7,099	2,094						29	9,222	13,429	68.67
	Benoni		3,957		1,293				52	5,302	12,112	43.77
	Bethal-Middelburg	5,757	2,521						51	8,329	10,216	81.53
	Bezuidenhout	1,983		6,507					26	8,516	11,839	71.93
	Boksburg	6,920		5,413					35	12,368	14,051	88.02
	Brakpan	6,158	3,629						96	9,883	12,559	78.69
	Brits	Unopposed
	Christiana	6,438	2,322						51	8,811	10,015	87.98
	Edenvale	6,509	3,812						29	10,350	13,781	75.10
	Ermelo	5,520	2,811						71	8,402	9,926	84.65
	Florida	4,473	6,407						28	10,908	12,750	85.55
	Geduld	7,006	3,576						33	10,615	13,922	76.25
	Germiston	6,239				2,053			31	8,323	11,015	75.56
	Germiston District	3,675	6,691						22	10,388	13,362	77.74
	Groblersdal	Unopposed
	Heidelberg	Unopposed
	Hercules	Unopposed
	Hillbrow		5,564				1,346		45	6,955	12,690	54.81
	Hospital		4,799					992	30	5,821	10,877	53.52
	Houghton		4,841		5,405				69	10,315	12,771	80.77
	Innesdal	Unopposed
	Jeppes		Unopposed
	Johannesburg North		5,413		4,541				67	10,021	13,245	75.66
	Kempton Park	Unopposed
	Kensington		Unopposed
	Klerksdorp	8,912	3,226					108	33	12,279	15,705	78.19
	Krugersdorp	6,023		3,831					47	9,901	12,555	78.86
	Langlaagte	5,891				2,325			58	8,274	11,844	69.86
	Lichtenburg	Unopposed
	Losberg	Unopposed
	Lydenburg—Barberton	5,326	2,849						79	8,254	9,758	84.59
	Maraisburg	Unopposed
	Marico	5,429	2,390						54	7,873	9,061	86.89
	Mayfair	5,431				2,039			34	7,504	11,176	67.14
	Nelspruit	5,790		3,059					37	8,886	10,564	84.12
	Nigel	Unopposed
	North East Rand		Unopposed
	North West Rand	6,495	4,774						29	11,298	13,118	86.13
	Orange Grove		5,363		4,846				65	10,274	12,594	81.58
	Parktown		5,100		5,015				65	10,180	12,458	81.71
	Pietersburg	6,201	2,200						58	8,459	10,766	78.57
	Potchefstroom	Unopposed
	Pretoria District	6,753	3,666						82	10,501	12,642	83.06
	Pretoria East	9,155			2,622				89	11,866	16,119	73.61
	Pretoria—Rissik	6,149	6,713						40	12,902	14,629	88.19
	Pretoria Central	Unopposed
	Pretoria—Sunnyside	7,528		4,801					27	12,356	15,521	79.61
	Pretoria West	Unopposed
	Prinshof	Unopposed
	Randfontein	6,227	3,280						120	9,627	11,772	81.78
	Roodepoort	7,532	3,284						36	10,852	13,245	81.93
	Rosettenville		Unopposed
	Rustenburg	5,886	2,544						40	8,470	10,448	81.07
	Soutpansberg	Unopposed
	Springs		Unopposed
	Standerton	5,340	3,139						58	8,537	10,066	84.81
	Turffontein		Unopposed
	Vanderbijl Park	Unopposed
	Ventersdorp	6,509	2,805						55	9,369	11,677	80.23
	Vereeniging	6,465		4,745					60	11,270	13,043	86.41
	Von Brandis		Unopposed
	Wakketstroom	Unopposed
	Waterberg	Unopposed
	Westdene	6,167				2,137			39	8,343	11,859	70.35
Witbank	Unopposed
Wolmaransstad	6,611	2,142						20	8,773	10,633	82.51
Wonderboom	Unopposed
Yeoville		Unopposed
Source: Government Gazette 110

References

• In No Uncertain Terms, by Helen Suzman (Mandarin Paperback 1994)
• Keesing's Contemporary Archives
• South Africa 1982 Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications