1910 South African general election

none December 2009 January 2021 August 2012 South Africa 1910 parliamentary 15 September 1910 1915 South African general election 1915 All 121 seats in the House of Assembly 61 130x130px Louisbotha.jpg 87CEEB Louis Botha stood in Pretoria East South African, Orangia Unie, and Het Volk 66 30,052 28.45% SirLeanderStarrJameson.jpg Leander Starr Jameson Albany Unionist Party (South Africa) 36 39,766 37.65% Kolonel Cresswell (cropped).jpg Frederic Creswell Jeppes Labour Party (South Africa) 3 11,549 10.93% Prime Minister Louis Botha South African Party 300px Results by constituency 300px Results by province General elections were held in South Africa on 15 September 1910 to elect the 121 members of the House of Assembly. They were the first general election after the Union of South Africa was created on 31 May 1910. The elections were held alongside the first election to the provincial councils of Cape Province and Transvaal. Those councils used the same electoral districts as those for the House of Assembly seats in the province. The first election for the provincial councils of Natal and Orange Free State, which did not use the same constituency boundaries as the House of Assembly, took place at a later date.The Times, edition of 26 July 1910 reports the fixing of the election dates Although the Unionist Party received the most votes, the alliance of parties led by General Louis Botha won a slim majority. The Unionist Party became the official opposition. Botha's alliance would later unite as the South African Party. Electoral system The South Africa Act 1909 provided that the franchise in each province should be the same as that in the corresponding colony before the Union, until altered by the Union Parliament. The Act included entrenching clauses, providing that black and coloured voters could only be removed from the common voters roll in the Cape of Good Hope, by legislation passed by a two-thirds majority by both houses of Parliament in joint session.Section 35 of the South Africa Act 1909 The franchise, in all parts of the Union, was limited to men over the age of 21. There were some additional qualifications and disqualifications which varied between provinces. The franchise in the Orange Free State and Transvaal was limited to white men. thumb|Map showing the % of non-white voters by electoral district in Cape Colony in 1908 - on the eve of union. The traditional "Cape Qualified Franchise" system of the Cape of Good Hope was based on property and wage qualifications, equally open to people of all races. At the time of the National Convention in 1908, which drafted the terms of what became the South Africa Act, "22,784 Native and Coloured persons out of a total of 152,221 electors" were entitled to vote in Cape elections. Natal had a theoretically non-racial franchise, but in practice few non-white electors ever qualified. It was estimated, in 1908, that "200 non-Europeans out of a total of 22,786 electors had secured franchise rights".Discussion of the franchise and the quotations about numbers of voters are from The South African Constitution, p. 10 The South Africa Act 1909 provided for single member electoral divisions, with members of the House of Assembly being elected using the relative majority (also known as first past the post) electoral system. The act also provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division.South Africa 1982, p. 129 Provinces Cape Natal Orange Free State Transvaal Total Seats 51 17 17 36 121 Contesting parties South African National Party The first Union Prime Minister (and former Transvaal Prime Minister), General Botha, assembled an electoral alliance before the first Union election. This grouping was composed of the governing parties of three of the colonies being united and some individual politicians from Natal (which did not have a pre-Union party system). The colonial parties involved were: the South African Party of the Cape Colony (itself largely based on the Afrikaner Bond) Het Volk from the Transvaal Orangia Unie from the Orange River Colony (which was restored to its pre-1902 name of Orange Free State as a province of the Union).South Africa 1982, p. 165 Unionist Party The 'Unionist Party of South Africa was formed, in May 1910, under the leadership of Leander Starr Jameson (a former Prime Minister of Cape Colony), by the merger of the three colonial opposition parties joined by some individual politicians from Natal. The parties merged into the Unionist Party were the: Unionist Party of Cape Colony (formerly known as the Cape Progressive Party) Constitutional Party of the Orange River Colony Progressive Party of TransvaalThe Times, edition of 24 May 1911, a review of the first session of the Union Parliament (which article included confirmation that the first group of 17 Natal MPs included 11 Independents, 4 Unionist Party members and 2 representatives of the South African Party). South Africa 1982, p. 165. The party was a pro-British conservative party. It favoured the maintenance of a pro-British political culture in South Africa similar to that present in the other 'white dominions'. Labour Party The South African Labour Party, formed in March 1910 following discussions between trade unions, the Transvaal Independent Labour Party and the Natal Labour Party, was a professedly socialist party representing the interests of the white working class. The party leader was Colonel F. H. P. Creswell. Results Results of the 1910 South African general election Popular vote figures may be misleading as 54 of the 121 seats went unopposed. This includes the two Independent Unionists.Ian van der Waag (2012) "All splendid, but horrible: The Politics of South Africa's Second "Little Bit" and the War on the Western Front, 1915-1918", Scientia Militaria, volume 40, number 3, pp71–108 File:South African House of Assembly, 1910.svg Unionist Party 39766 36 South African National Party 30052 66 Labour Party 11549 3 Socialist Party 448 0 Independent South African National Party 3430 1 Independent Labour Party 815 1 Independent Unionist Party 2 Independents 19563 12 Van der Waag,Van der Waag SchoemanB.M. Schoeman (1977) Parlementêre verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910–1976, pp33, 66–67 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) Category:General elections in South Africa South Africa General South Africa Category:Election and referendum articles with incomplete results