South African general election, 1929

South African general election, 1929

14 June 1929 (1929-06-14)

All 148 seats in the House of Assembly   First party Second party Third party   Leader J. B. M. Hertzog Jan Smuts Disputed Party National South African Labour Last election 63 seats 53 seats 18 seats Seats won 78 61 8 Seat change 15 8 10 Popular vote 141,579 159,896 33,919 Percentage 41.16% 46.51% 9.86% Swing +5.91% -0.54% -4.49%

Prime Minister before election J. B. M. Hertzog National Elected Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog National

In the 1929 South African general election, held on 14 June 1929, the National Party under James Barry Munnik Hertzog won an outright majority in the House of Assembly. Hertzog had the opportunity to form a government without the aid of the Labour Party. In fact the Pact government continued, with two ministers from the Creswell Labour faction remaining in office. The National Party remained the dominant party, for its second consecutive term.

Due to the split in the Labour Party, just eight MPs were elected for the party, of whom only four sat on the government benches.^[1]

Delimitation of electoral divisions

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division. The representation by province, under the fifth delimitation report of 1928, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1923) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.^[2]

Results

The vote totals in the table below may not give a complete picture of the balance of political opinion, because of unopposed elections (where no votes were cast) and because contested seats may not have been fought by a candidate from all major parties.

The total registered electorate was 461,820. The votes cast were 347,924 (including 4,027 spoilt votes).^[3]

References

• South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications
• The South African Constitution, by H.J. May (3rd edition 1955, Juta & Co)

See also

• 1929 in South Africa

Elections and referendums in South Africa 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 Referendums 1960 1983 1992 See also: Elections and referendums in the Boer republics and South African colonies Elections and referendums in South African Bantustans