1920 South African general election

South African general election, 1920

20 March 1920 (1920-03-20)
All 134 seats in the House of Assembly
First party Second party   File:JBM Hertzog.jpg 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   120x120px 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%
Prime Minister before election Jan Smuts South African Elected Prime Minister Jan Smuts South African

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.

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).

Party		Seats	Seats %	Votes	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