South African general election, 1981

29 April 1981

All 165 elected seats in the House of Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	P. W. Botha	Frederik van Zyl Slabbert
Party	National Party	Progressive Federal
Last election	134	17
Seats won	131	26
Seat change	3	9

Prime Minister before election

P. W. Botha
National Party

Elected Prime Minister

P. W. Botha
National Party

South Africa

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During the 1981 South African general election, held on 29 April of that year, the National Party, under the leadership of P. W. Botha since 1978, lost some support, but achieved another landslide victory, winning 131 of 165 directly-elected seats in the House of Assembly.^[1]

Its membership now included 12 additional members, of whom four were appointed by the State President and eight were elected by the directly elected members.^[2]

The elected additional members were chosen by means of proportional representation, by means of the single transferable vote.^[1]

Meanwhile, the Progressive Federal Party – led since 1979 by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert, an Afrikaner – increased its representation to 26 seats, thereby consolidating its position as the official opposition.

The Herstigte Nasionale Party (HNP), which represented right-wing Afrikaner conservatives, received 14.1% of the popular vote but did not gain any seats.^[1]

Results

	Leader	Votes	%	Elected seats	Other seats	Total seats
National Party	P.W. Botha	777,558	56.96%	131	11	143
Progressive Federal Party	Frederik van Zyl Slabbert	265,297	19.44%	26	1	27
Herstigte Nasionale Party	Jaap Marais	192,304	14.09%	0	0	0
New Republic Party	Vause Raw	106,764	7.82%	8	0	8
Others		23,044	1.68%	0	0	0
Total			100.00%	165	12	177

Constitutional changes

The 1981 election was the first since the abolition of the Senate that year, the House of Assembly had become the sole chamber of Parliament.^[3] It was also the last to be held under the then 1961 Constitution, under which South Africa had become a republic, while retaining a Westminster-style parliamentary system.

References

1 2 3 SOUTH AFRICA Date of Elections: 29 April 1981, International Parliamentary Union
↑ The Comparative and International Law Journal of Southern Africa, Volume 13, Institute of Foreign and Comparative Law, University of South Africa, 1981, page 354
↑ Parliaments of South Africa, J.J.L Cloete, J.L. van Schaik, 1985, page 62

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

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