| South Africa | ||
This article is part of the series: |
||
|
|
||
|
||
|
Other countries · Atlas |
The 1970 South African general election was held on 22 April for the 166-seat House of Assembly. Parliament was dissolved on 2 March and the deadline for the submission of candidates was 13 March. This was the first time in South African history that the House elected was responsible entirely to white people, as the seats of the four MPs elected separately by "qualified" Cape Coloured expired in the same year.
The election saw yet another victory for the National Party (NP), for the first time under the leadership of John Vorster, and saw a number of new representatives elected, including Chris Heunis, future Acting President and Pik Botha, future Minister of Foreign Affairs for 17 years, who made his maiden speech demanding that the government sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights.[1]
However, the NP lost some support for the first time since the 1948 election and its number of seats was reduced by eight. This could be attributed to losing votes to the right-wing splinter Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party), which never succeded to win any seats, however.
Helen Suzman, member of parliament for Houghton, retained her seat as the sole representative of the liberal Progressive Party.
Elections were held in 155 of the 166 constituencies (11 members elected unopposed). There were 2 028 487 registered voters and 1 508 248 votes were cast (74.7% of voters in contested constituencies).[2]
| Party | Leader | Candidates | Votes | %Votes | Seats | %Seats | Previous | Change | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National Party | John Vorster | 145 | 820 968 | 54.43% | 118 | 71.1% | 126 | -8 | |
| United Party | De Villiers Graaff | 149 | 561 647 | 37.23% | 47 | 28.3% | 39 | +8 | |
| Herstigte Nasionale Party | Albert Hertzog | 80 | 53 763 | 3.57% | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | ±0 | |
| Progressive Party | Jan Steytler | 19 | 51 760 | 3.43% | 1 | 0.6% | 1 | ±0 | |
| Independents | 14 | 9 622 | 1.35% | 0 | 0.0% | 0 | ±0 | ||
| Total valid | 407 | 1 497 760 | 100.0% | 166 | 100.0% | 166 | - | ||
| Spoilt votes | 10 524 | ||||||||
| Total votes | 1 508 284 | ||||||||
* one seat was filled in a subsequent by-election
|
||||||||||||||