1961 South African general election

← 1958 18 October 1961 1966 →
All 156 general roll seats in the House of Assembly 79 seats needed for a majority
Registered	1,811,160
Turnout	44.55% ( 29.81pp)
First party Second party   Leader H. F. Verwoerd De Villiers Graaff Party National United Last election 55.54%, 103 seats 42.57%, 53 seats Seats won 105 49 Seat change 2 4 Popular vote 370,395 261,361 Percentage 46.44% 35.28% Swing 9.10pp 7.29pp   Third party Fourth party   Leader Jan Steytler Henry Allan Fagan Party Progressive National Union Last election Did not exist Did not exist Seats won 1 1 Seat change New party New party Popular vote 69,045 50,279 Percentage 8.66% 6.30% Swing New party New party
Results by province
Prime Minister before election H. F. Verwoerd National Elected Prime Minister H. F. Verwoerd National

This article is part of a series on the
Politics of South Africa
Constitution Bill of Rights
Executive President Cyril Ramaphosa Deputy President Paul Mashatile Cabinet Departments Shadow Cabinet
Legislature National Council of Provinces Chairperson Refilwe Mtsweni-Tsipane National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza Leader of the Opposition John Hlophe
Judiciary Chief Justice Ray Zondo Deputy Chief Justice Mandisa Maya Courts Constitutional Court Supreme Court of Appeal President: Mahube Molemela High Court Magistrate's courts Electoral Court
Elections General 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 2019 2024 Municipal 2000 2006 2011 2016 2021 Referendums 1960 1983 1992 Political parties
Administrative divisions Provinces Districts Metropolitan municipality District municipality Municipalities (list)
Foreign relations Department of International Relations and Cooperation Minister: Naledi Pandor Diplomatic missions of / in South Africa Nationality law Passport Visa requirements Visa policy
Related topics Human rights National debt Political assassinations Protests Repression Social Welfare Taxation
Provincial politics Politics of the Eastern Cape Politics of the Free State Politics of Gauteng Politics of KwaZulu-Natal Politics of Limpopo Politics of Mpumalanga Politics of the Northern Cape Politics of North West Politics of the Western Cape
South Africa portal Other countries

General elections were held in South Africa on 18 October 1961.^[1] They were the first general elections after South Africa became a republic following the 1960 South African referendum. The National Party under H. F. Verwoerd won a majority in the House of Assembly.

The National Union Party - led by Japie Basson and ex-Chief Justice Henry Allan Fagan in alliance with the United Party - had been formed as a "bridge" to the United Party by disgrunted ex-Nationalists who were unhappy with Verwoerd's leadership, aiming at the National, Afrikaner electorate. With the exception of the constituency of Bezuidenhout, won by Basson in a landslide, the party failed and later merged with the United Party.

The elections also saw the first general election appearance of the liberal Progressive Party, which had broken away from the United Party in 1959. The new party retained one MP, in the form of Helen Suzman. She was to remain its sole parliamentary representative until 1974.

During the previous Parliament the seats of the three MPs and four Senators representing black South Africans had been abolished. The 1961 election produced the first Parliament with no representation at all for black South Africans.^[2]

The second election for the four Coloured representative members took place on 4 October 1961, before the (white voters only) general election on 18 October 1961. Under the Separate Representation of Voters Act 1951, the members were to serve until the dissolution of the new Parliament.

The four seats were won by Independents, with United Party support. The recently formed Progressive Party did not contest the four vacancies.^[3]

This was the first election after the passage of the Electoral Law Amendment Act, No. 30 of 1958, which reduced the voting age for white voters from 21 to 18.^[4]

The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division, for general roll voters in the four provinces. The representation by province, under the eleventh delimitation report of 1958, is set out in the table below. The figures in brackets are the number of electoral divisions in the previous (1953) delimitation. If there is no figure in brackets then the number was unchanged.^[5]

This was only the second general election, in South African history, where the boundaries were unchanged from the previous election.

At the end of the 12th Parliament elected since the Union of 1910, when it was dissolved in 1961, the House of Assembly consisted of two groups of members. White voters were represented by 156 general roll members and coloured voters in Cape Province by four white MPs known at the time as Coloured Representative Members (CRM).

The general election only affected the representatives of white voters. The other members were elected on a different date (see above).

The representation by party and province, at the dissolution was:-^[6]

A total of 70 seats were uncontested, of which 50 were won by the National Party and 20 by the United Party.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	National Party	370,395	46.44	105	+2
	United Party	281,361	35.28	49	–4
	Progressive Party	69,045	8.66	1	New
	National Union	50,279	6.30	1	New
	Conservative Workers' Party	8,554	1.07	0	New
	United National South West Party	6,856	0.86	0	0
	Independent Republican Party	2,903	0.36	0	New
	Liberal Party	2,461	0.31	0	0
	Independents	5,707	0.72	0	0
Coloured Representative Members				4	0
Total		797,561	100.00	160	–3
Valid votes		797,561	99.44
Invalid/blank votes		4,518	0.56
Total votes		802,079	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,811,160	44.29
Source: Potgieter[7]

• In No Uncertain Terms, by Helen Suzman (Mandarin Paperback 1994)
• Keesing's Contemporary Archives
• South Africa 1982 Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa, published by Chris van Rensburg Publications