South African general election, 1977

South Africa

This article is part of the series:
Politics and government of
South Africa

Other countries · Atlas
Politics portal

The 1977 South African general election was held on 30 November 1977. The National Party, led by John Vorster won a landslide victory in the House of Assembly. The newly formed Progressive Federal Party, led by Colin Eglin became the official opposition. The New Republic Party, successor to the United Party, won only 10 seats, all but one of them in Natal Province. Once again, the Herstigte Nasionale Party failed to win any seats.

In the 1977 elections the National Party got its best-ever result in the elections with support of 64.8% of the white voters and 134 seats in parliament out of 165. Vorster, however resigned as Prime Minister for alleged health reasons, not even a year later on 28 September 1978.

Results

e • d Summary of the 30 November 1977 South African general election results
Party Votes %Votes Seats Change %Seats
  National Party 689 108 64.8% 134 +15 81.2%
  Progressive Federal Party 177 705 16.7% 17 +11 10.3%
  New Republic Party 123 245 12.1% 10 -31 6.1%
  Herstigte Nasionale Party 34 161 3.2% 0 ±0 0.0%
  South African Party 17 915 1.7% 3 +3 2.2%
  Others 6 171 0.6% 1 +0 0.6%
Total 100.0% 165 -1 100.0%

Sources

African elections

General elections
1910 · 1915 · 1920 · 1921 · 1924 · 1929 · 1933 · 1938 · 1943 · 1948 · 1953 · 1958 · 1961 · 1966 · 1970 · 1974 · 1977 · 1981 · 1984 · 1987 · 1989 · 1994 · 1999 · 2004 · 2009 · 2014
Municipal elections
1995–96 · 2000 · 2006 · 2011 · 2016
Referendums
1960 · 1983 · 1992