1970 South African general election

South African general election, 1970

22 April 1970 (1970-04-22)
All 166 seats in the House of Assembly
First party Second party   97px x130px Leader B. J. Vorster De Villiers Graaff Party National Party United Last election 126 seats 39 seats Seats won 118 47 Seat change 8 8 Popular vote 820,968 561,647 Percentage 54.43% 37.23% Swing 3.88% 0.14%
Prime Minister before election B. J. Vorster National Party Elected Prime Minister B. J. Vorster National Party

The 1970 South African general election was held on 22 April for the 166-seat House of Assembly. Parliament was dissolved on 2 March and the deadline for the submission of candidates was 13 March. This was the first time in South African history that the House elected was responsible entirely to white people, as the seats of the four MPs elected separately by "qualified" Cape Coloured expired in the same year.

The election saw yet another victory for the National Party (NP), for the first time under the leadership of John Vorster, and saw a number of new representatives elected, including Chris Heunis, future Acting President and Pik Botha, future Minister of Foreign Affairs for 17 years, who made his maiden speech demanding that the government sign the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

However, the NP lost some support for the first time since the 1948 election and its number of seats was reduced by eight. This could be attributed to losing votes to the right-wing splinter Herstigte Nasionale Party (Reconstituted National Party), which never succeeded to win any seats, however.

Helen Suzman, member of parliament for Houghton, retained her seat as the sole representative of the liberal Progressive Party.

House of Assembly results

Elections were held in 155 of the 166 constituencies (11 members elected unopposed). There were 2 028 487 registered voters and 1 508 248 votes were cast (74.7% of voters in contested constituencies).

Party		Leader	Candidates	Votes	%Votes	Seats	%Seats	Previous	Change
	National Party	John Vorster	145	820 968	54.43%	118	71.1%	126	-8
	United Party	De Villiers Graaff	149	561 647	37.23%	47	28.3%	39	+8
	Herstigte Nasionale Party	Albert Hertzog	80	53 763	3.57%	0	0.0%	0	±0
	Progressive Party	Jan Steytler	19	51 760	3.43%	1	0.6%	1	±0
	Independents		14	9 622	1.35%	0	0.0%	0	±0
Total valid			407	1 497 760	100.0%	166	100.0%	166	-
Spoilt votes				10 524
Total votes				1 508 284

* one seat was filled in a subsequent by-election