South African general election, 1974

24 April 1974 (1974-04-24)

All 171 seats in the House of Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	B. J. Vorster	De Villiers Graaff
Party	National	United
Last election	118 seats	47 seats
Seats won	123	41
Seat change	5	6

Prime Minister before election

B. J. Vorster
National

Elected Prime Minister

B. J. Vorster
National

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The 1974 South African general election, held on 24 April, was called one year earlier than scheduled by Prime Minister John Vorster on 4 February. The House of Assembly was increased from 166 to 171 members. The Progressive Party made a major advance. In addition to Helen Suzman, re-elected for Houghton, five other members won seats including the party leader Colin Eglin. A seventh member of the caucus was elected at a by-election soon after. The United Party won 41 seats. The election would also see Harry Schwarz, leader of the United Party in the Transvaal, enter Parliament, who would soon lead a break away from the United Party and would become one of the Apartheid's most prominent opponents in Parliament.

Formation of Reform Party

On 11 February 1975 four liberal MPs led by Harry Schwarz broke away from the United Party and created the Reform Party. The party merged with the Progressive Party on 25 July 1975 to form the Progressive Reform Party. In 1977 another group of United Party members left the party to form the Committee for a United Opposition, which then joined the Progressive Reform Party to form the Progressive Federal Party. This proved to realign the opposition in Parliament, as the PFP became the official opposition party.

Nominations

Nominations closed on 18 March. A total of 334 candidates were nominated for 171 seats: National Party 137, United Party 110, Herstigte Nasionale Party 46, Progressive Party 23, Democratic Party 7 and others 11.^[1] 46 seats were won unopposed, 32 for the National Party and 14 for the United Party.

House of Assembly results

125 of the 171 seats were contested. There were 2 203 349 registered voters. ^[2]

Party		Leader	Candidates	Votes	%Votes	Seats	%Seats	Previous	Change
	National Party	John Vorster	105	636 586	57.1%	123	71.9%	118	+5
	United Party	De Villiers Graaff	96	363 459	32.7%	41	24.0%	47	-6
	Progressive Party	Colin Eglin	22	58 768	5.3%	7	4.1%	1	+6
	Herstigte Nasionale Party	Albert Hertzog	48	39 568	3.6%		0.0%		0
	Democratic Party	Theo Gerdener	7	10 449	0.9%		0.0%		0
	Others		15	4 990	0.4%		0.0%		0
Total valid			293	1 113 820	100.0%	171	100.0%	166	+5
Spoilt				20 823
Total votes				1 134 643

Senate

The elections for the Senate were held on 30 May 1974 by an electoral college made up of members of the Assembly and various others. The National Party gained one seat at the expense of the United Party, winning 32 of the 44 seats (the United Party held 12 seats).


National Party	32	+1
United Party	12	—1
Total	44

Sources

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