South African general election, 1920

South African general election, 1920

20 March 1920 (1920-03-20)

All 134 seats in the House of Assembly   First party Second party   Leader J. B. M. Hertzog Jan Smuts Party National South African Last election 27 seats 54 seats Seats won 44 41 Seat change 14 13 Popular vote 90,512 101,227 Percentage 32.62% 36.48% Swing +3.21% -0.19%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Thomas Smartt F. H. P. Creswell Party Unionist Labour Last election 39 seats 4 seats Seats won 25 21 Seat change 14 17 Popular vote 38,946 40,639 Percentage 14.03% 14.64% Swing -5.39% +5.01%

House of Assembly after the election

Prime Minister before election Jan Smuts South African Elected Prime Minister Jan Smuts South African

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The 1920 South African general election was held for the 134 seats in the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa, on 20 March 1920. This was for the third Union Parliament.

The National Party (NP) won the largest number of seats, but not a majority. The South African Party (SAP) minority government continued in office, with Unionist Party support in Parliament. This was the third successive term of SAP government, but only the second period with General Jan Smuts as Prime Minister. The first SAP premier (General Louis Botha) had died in office in 1919, during the previous Parliament.

The National Party became the official opposition, for the first time.

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 third delimitation report of 1919, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1913) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.^[1]

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 421,790. The votes cast were 282,361 (including 4,876 spoilt ballots).^[2]

References

• South Africa 1982: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications

1. ↑ South Africa 1982, page 129
2. ↑ South Africa 1982, page 176
3. ↑ South Africa 1982, page 174 (seats by party)
4. ↑ South Africa 1982, page 176 (votes by party)

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 2016 Referendums 1960 1983 1992 See also: Elections and referendums in the Boer republics and South African colonies Elections and referendums in South African Bantustans