South African general election, 1920

10 March 1920 (1920-03-10)

All 134 seats in the House of Assembly

	First party	Second party

Leader	J. B. M. Hertzog	Jan Smuts
Party	National Party	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

South Africa

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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 10 March 1920.^[1] 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.^[2]

Provinces	Cape	Natal	Orange Free State	Transvaal	Total
Divisions	51	17	17	49 (45)	134 (130)

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).^[3]

Party		Seats^[4]	Seats %	Votes^[5]	Votes %	Leader
	National Party	44	32.84	101,227	36.48	General J. B. M. Hertzog
	South African	41	30.60	90,512	32.62	General Jan Smuts
	Unionist	25	18.66	38,946	14.03	Sir Thomas Smartt
	Labour	21	15.67	40,639	14.64	Colonel F. H. P. Creswell
	Independent	3	2.24	5,986	2.16	-
	Socialist League	-	-	202	0.07	Bill Andrews
	Total	134

References

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

↑ "The South African General Election was held on March 10th". The Spectator (London). 20 March 1920. Retrieved 21 February 2016.
↑ South Africa 1982, page 129
↑ South Africa 1982, page 176
↑ South Africa 1982, page 174 (seats by party)
↑ 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

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