29 April 1981 1984 → 131 26 Start date April 29, 1981 | 134 17 3 9 | |
 | ||
Winner P W Botha | ||
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.
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.
The elected additional members were chosen by means of proportional representation, by means of the single transferable vote.
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.
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. 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.