National Assembly of South Africa

National Assembly
26th Parliament
Type
Type	Lower house of the Parliament of South Africa
Leadership
Speaker	Baleka Mbete, ANC since 21 May 2014
Deputy Speaker	Lechesa Tsenoli, ANC since 21 May 2014
Leader of Government Business	Cyril Ramaphosa, ANC since 25 May 2014
Leader of the Opposition	Mmusi Maimane, DA since 26 May 2014
Structure
Seats	400
Political groups	ANC (249)      DA (89)      EFF (25)      IFP (10)      Others (27)
Elections
Voting system	Party-list proportional representation
Last election	7 May 2014
Next election	2019
Meeting place
National Assembly Chamber, Houses of Parliament, Cape Town, Western Cape, South Africa
Website
National Assembly

The National Assembly is the lower house of the Parliament of South Africa, located in Cape Town, Western Cape Province. It consists of four hundred members who are elected every five years using a party-list proportional representation system where half of the members are elected proportionally from 9 provincial lists and the remaining half from national lists so as to restore proportionality.

The National Assembly is presided over by a Speaker, assisted by a Deputy Speaker. The current Speaker is Baleka Mbete and the Deputy Speaker is Lechesa Tsenoli; they were elected on 21 May 2014.^[1]

Allocation

The National Assembly seats are allocated using a proportional representation system with closed lists. Seats are first allocated according to the (integer part of the) Droop quota. Thereafter at most five seats are allocated using the largest remainder method (using the Droop quota). Any additional seats are allocated amongst the parties who then already have seats using the highest averages method.

Voters have one vote at elections to the National Assembly. Seats are allocated in ten multi-member constituencies via party lists. One constituency is a national or 'at large' constituency and nine others represent each of the nine provinces. The lists were called the national lists and regional lists in the 2009 election. 'Regional' was used to avoid confusion with the provincial legislature elections held at the same time. Previously they were called 'National to National' and 'Provincial to National'.

Of the 400 members of the National Assembly, half are assigned to be elected from national lists and the remaining half are assigned to be elected from regional lists. Every election, the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) determines the allocation of the 200 regional list seats to each province by population.

Parties decide whether they want to set up both national and regional lists or only regional lists. In the 2009 election, the Democratic Alliance (DA) chose not to use a national list. The nationwide votes entitled the DA to 67 seats, but the provincial votes amounted to only 35 seats. While normally the remaining 32 members would be drawn from the party's national list, in this case the remaining seats were distributed among the other DA regional list candidates. This resulted in the National Assembly being made up of 168 members elected on national lists and 232 members elected on regional lists.

History

The change over time in the composition of the National Assembly. Solid vertical lines are elections; dashed vertical lines are floor-crossing periods.

The National Assembly was first elected in South Africa's first non-racial election in 1994 with the African National Congress (ANC) winning 252 of the 400 seats. The National Party (NP), the previous governing party, won 82 seats, and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won 43. Under the terms of the Interim Constitution this result entitled the NP and the IFP to take part in the Government of National Unity alongside the ANC, and gave the ANC and NP the right to each nominated one Deputy President. The other parties represented in the assembly were the Freedom Front (9 seats), the Democratic Party (7 seats), the Pan Africanist Congress (5 seats), and the African Christian Democratic Party (2 seats).

In the election of 1999, the ANC won 266 seats, one short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally amend the constitution. The DP expanded its representation to become the official opposition with 38 seats, while the IFP won 34. The NP, now renamed the New National Party (NNP), dropped to 28 seats, and the newly formed United Democratic Movement (UDM) won 14. Eight smaller parties also obtained seats in the assembly.

In the election of 2004 the ANC obtained 279 seats, gaining a two-thirds majority and the ability to change the constitution. The DP became the Democratic Alliance (DA) and remained the official opposition with 50 seats, while the IFP won 28 seats. The NNP was severely weakened, obtaining only 7 seats; the party was formally disbanded in 2005 with the majority of the party joining the ANC.

In the election of 2009 the ANC lost its two-thirds majority but remained the majority party with 264 seats. The DA increased its support to 67 seats, and the new Congress of the People (COPE) party, a breakaway from the ANC, obtained 30 seats. The IFP was reduced to 18 seats.

The following table shows the party composition of the National Assembly over time.

Election results

The last election was held on 7 May 2014.

	Party		Votes	%	+/−	Seats	+/−
list		African National Congress	11,436,921	62.15	3.75	249	15
list		Democratic Alliance	4,091,584	22.23	[lower-alpha 1] 4.62	89	[lower-alpha 1] 18
list		Economic Freedom Fighters	1,169,259	6.35	New	25	New
list		Inkatha Freedom Party	441,854	2.40	2.15	10	8
list		National Freedom Party	288,742	1.57	New	6	New
list		United Democratic Movement	184,636	1.00	0.16	4	0
list		Freedom Front Plus	165,715	0.90	0.07	4	0
list		Congress of the People	123,235	0.67	6.75	3	27
list		African Christian Democratic Party	104,039	0.57	0.24	3	0
list		African Independent Congress	97,642	0.53	New	3	New
list		Agang SA	52,350	0.28	New	2	New
list		Pan Africanist Congress	37,784	0.21	0.07	1	0
list		African People's Convention	30,676	0.17	0.04	1	0
list		Al Jama-ah	25,976	0.14	0.01	0	0
list		Minority Front	22,589	0.12	0.12	0	1
list		United Christian Democratic Party	21,744	0.12	0.26	0	2
list		Azanian People's Organisation	20,421	0.11	0.11	0	1
list		Bushbuckridge Residents Association	15,271	0.08	New	0	New
list		Independent Civic Organisation	14,472	0.08	New	0	New
list		Patriotic Alliance	13,263	0.07	New	0	New
list		Workers and Socialist Party	8,331	0.05	New	0	New
list		Ubuntu Party	8,234	0.04	New	0	New
list		Kingdom Governance Movement	6,408	0.03	New	0	New
list		Front National	5,138	0.03	New	0	New
list		Keep It Straight and Simple	4,294	0.02	0.01	0	0
list		Pan Africanist Movement	3,815	0.02	0.01	0	0
list		First Nation Liberation Alliance	3,297	0.02	New	0	New
list		United Congress	3,136	0.02	New	0	New
list		Peoples Alliance	1,671	0.01	New	0	New
	Total		18,402,497	100.00		400
	Valid votes		18,402,497	98.65
	Spoilt votes		251,960	1.35
	Total votes cast		18,654,457	100.00
	Registered voters/turnout		25,381,293	73.50
	Source: IEC

Notes:

Current composition

References

External links

• Parliament of South Africa
  • National Assembly