1994 South African general election
General elections were held in South Africa between 26 and 29 April 1994. The elections were the first in which citizens of all races were allowed to take part, and were therefore also the first held with universal adult suffrage. The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), and marked the culmination of the four-year process that ended apartheid.
![]() | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
All 400 seats to the National Assembly of South Africa 201 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Turnout | 86.9%[1][2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
![]() National Assembly after the election | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
![]() |
---|
This article is part of a series on the politics and government of South Africa |
|
|
Related topics |
![]() |
Millions queued in lines over a four-day voting period. Altogether, 19,726,579 votes were counted, and 193,081 were rejected as invalid. As widely expected, the African National Congress (ANC), whose slate incorporated the labour confederation COSATU and the South African Communist Party, won a sweeping victory, taking 62 percent of the vote, just short of the two-thirds majority required to unilaterally amend the Interim Constitution. As required by that document, the ANC formed a Government of National Unity with the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party, the two other parties that won more than 20 seats in the National Assembly. The new National Assembly's first act was to elect Nelson Mandela as President, making him the country's first black chief executive.
The date 27 April is now a public holiday in South Africa, Freedom Day.
National Parliament results
National Assembly
The 400 members of the National Assembly were chosen from party lists in proportion to each party's share of the national ballot.
Party | Leader | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | Nelson Mandela | 12,237,655 | 62.65 | 252 | |
National Party | F. W. de Klerk | 3,983,690 | 20.39 | 82 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | Mangosuthu Buthelezi | 2,058,294 | 10.54 | 43 | |
Freedom Front | Constand Viljoen | 424,555 | 2.17 | 9 | |
Democratic Party | Zach de Beer | 338,426 | 1.73 | 7 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | Clarence Makwetu | 243,478 | 1.25 | 5 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | Kenneth Meshoe | 88,104 | 0.45 | 2 | |
Africa Muslim Party | 34,466 | 0.18 | 0 | ||
African Moderates Congress Party | 27,690 | 0.14 | 0 | ||
Dikwankwetla Party | 19,451 | 0.10 | 0 | ||
Federal Party | 17,663 | 0.09 | 0 | ||
Minority Front | Amichand Rajbansi | 13,433 | 0.07 | 0 | |
Sport Organisation for Collective Contributions and Equal Rights | 10,575 | 0.05 | 0 | ||
African Democratic Movement | 9,886 | 0.05 | 0 | ||
Women's Rights Peace Party | 6,434 | 0.03 | 0 | ||
Ximoko Progressive Party | 6,320 | 0.03 | 0 | ||
Keep It Straight and Simple Party | 5,916 | 0.03 | 0 | ||
Workers' List Party | 4,169 | 0.02 | 0 | ||
Luso-South African Party | 3,293 | 0.02 | 0 | ||
Total | 19,533,498 | 100.00 | 400 | ||
Spoilt votes | 193,112 |

Senate
The 90 members of the Senate were chosen, 10 from each province, by the newly elected provincial legislatures. Each province's Senate seats were allocated in proportion to the parties' representation in the provincial legislature.
Party | EC | FS | G | KZN | M | NW | NC | NP | WC | Total | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 9 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 8 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 60 | |
National Party | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 17 | ||
Inkatha Freedom Party | 5 | 5 | |||||||||
Freedom Front | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||||
Democratic Party | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||||||
Total | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 90 |
In 1997, on the adoption of the final Constitution, the Senate became the National Council of Provinces; its political makeup remained the same, but members were divided into permanent and special delegates, as described in the following table.
Party | Delegate type | EC | FS | G | KZN | M | NW | NC | NP | WC | Total | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | Permanent | 5 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 32 | 60 | |
Special | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 28 | |||
National Party | Permanent | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 17 | ||
Special | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | |||||||||
Inkatha Freedom Party | Permanent | 3 | 3 | 5 | |||||||||
Special | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
Freedom Front | Permanent | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 5 | ||||||
Democratic Party | Permanent | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | ||||||||
Total | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 90 |
Provincial legislature results
Members of the provincial legislatures were elected from party lists in proportion to each party's share of the provincial ballot. The following table summarises the result, showing only parties that won at least one seat. The majority party in each legislature is indicated in bold.
Party | EC | FS | G | KZN | M | NW | NC | NP | WC | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 48 | 24 | 50 | 26 | 25 | 26 | 15 | 38 | 14 | |
National Party | 6 | 4 | 21 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 12 | 1 | 23 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 3 | 41 | ||||||||
Freedom Front | 2 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |||
Democratic Party | 1 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |||||
Pan Africanist Congress | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
African Christian Democratic Party | 1 | 1 | 1 | |||||||
Minority Front | 1 | |||||||||
Total | 56 | 30 | 86 | 81 | 30 | 30 | 30 | 40 | 42 |
The following tables detail the results in each province.
Eastern Cape
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 2,453,790 | 84.35 | 48 | |
National Party | 286,029 | 9.83 | 6 | |
Democratic Party | 59,644 | 2.05 | 1 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 59,475 | 2.04 | 1 | |
Freedom Front | 23,167 | 0.80 | 0 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 14,908 | 0.51 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 5,050 | 0.17 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 4,815 | 0.17 | 0 | |
Merit Party | 2,028 | 0.07 | 0 | |
Total | 2,908,906 | 100.00 | 56 | |
Spoilt votes | 13,248 |
Free State
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 1,037,998 | 76.65 | 24 | |
National Party | 170,452 | 12.59 | 4 | |
Freedom Front | 81,662 | 6.03 | 2 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 24,451 | 1.81 | 0 | |
Dikwankwetla Party | 17,024 | 1.26 | 0 | |
Democratic Party | 7,664 | 0.57 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 6,935 | 0.51 | 0 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 6,072 | 0.45 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 2,008 | 0.15 | 0 | |
Total | 1,354,266 | 100.00 | 30 | |
Spoilt votes | 10,286 |
Gauteng
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 2,418,257 | 57.60 | 50 | |
National Party | 1,002,540 | 23.88 | 21 | |
Freedom Front | 258,935 | 6.17 | 5 | |
Democratic Party | 223,548 | 5.32 | 5 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 153,567 | 3.66 | 3 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 61,512 | 1.47 | 1 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 25,542 | 0.61 | 1 | |
Federal Party | 16,279 | 0.39 | 0 | |
Africa Muslim Party | 12,888 | 0.31 | 0 | |
Women's Rights Peace Party | 7,279 | 0.17 | 0 | |
Luso-South African Party | 5,423 | 0.13 | 0 | |
Dikwankwetla Party | 4,853 | 0.12 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 4,352 | 0.10 | 0 | |
Ximoko Progressive Party | 3,275 | 0.08 | 0 | |
Total | 4,198,250 | 100.00 | 86 | |
Spoilt votes | 25,383 |
KwaZulu/Natal
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Inkatha Freedom Party | 1,844,070 | 50.32 | 41 | |
African National Congress | 1,181,118 | 32.23 | 26 | |
National Party | 410,710 | 11.21 | 9 | |
Democratic Party | 78,910 | 2.15 | 2 | |
Minority Front | 48,951 | 1.34 | 1 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 26,601 | 0.73 | 1 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 24,690 | 0.67 | 1 | |
Freedom Front | 18,625 | 0.51 | 0 | |
Africa Muslim Party | 17,931 | 0.49 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 8,092 | 0.22 | 0 | |
Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International | 4,626 | 0.13 | 0 | |
Total | 3,664,324 | 100.00 | 81 | |
Spoilt votes | 39,369 |
Mpumalanga
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 1,070,052 | 80.69 | 25 | |
National Party | 119,311 | 9.00 | 3 | |
Freedom Front | 75,120 | 5.66 | 2 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 21,679 | 1.63 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 20,147 | 1.52 | 0 | |
Democratic Party | 7,437 | 0.56 | 0 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 6,339 | 0.48 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 5,062 | 0.38 | 0 | |
Right Party | 921 | 0.07 | 0 | |
Total | 1,326,068 | 100.00 | 30 | |
Spoilt votes | 12,631 |
North-West
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 1,310,080 | 83.33 | 26 | |
National Party | 138,986 | 8.84 | 3 | |
Freedom Front | 72,821 | 4.63 | 1 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 27,274 | 1.73 | 0 | |
Democratic Party | 7,894 | 0.50 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 5,948 | 0.38 | 0 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 5,570 | 0.35 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 3,569 | 0.23 | 0 | |
Total | 1,572,142 | 100.00 | 30 | |
Spoilt votes | 18,974 |
Northern Cape
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 200,839 | 49.74 | 15 | |
National Party | 163,452 | 40.48 | 12 | |
Freedom Front | 24,117 | 5.97 | 2 | |
Democratic Party | 7,567 | 1.87 | 1 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 3,765 | 0.93 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 1,688 | 0.42 | 0 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 1,610 | 0.40 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 734 | 0.18 | 0 | |
Total | 403,772 | 100.00 | 30 | |
Spoilt votes | 3,534 |
Northern Province
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
African National Congress | 1,759,597 | 91.63 | 38 | |
National Party | 62,745 | 3.27 | 1 | |
Freedom Front | 41,193 | 2.15 | 1 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 24,360 | 1.27 | 0 | |
United People's Front | 10,123 | 0.53 | 0 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 7,363 | 0.38 | 0 | |
Ximoko Progressive Party | 4,963 | 0.26 | 0 | |
Democratic Party | 4,021 | 0.21 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 3,662 | 0.19 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 2,233 | 0.12 | 0 | |
Total | 1,920,260 | 100.00 | 40 | |
Spoilt votes | 13,702 |
Western Cape
Party | Votes | % | Seats | |
---|---|---|---|---|
National Party | 1,138,242 | 53.25 | 23 | |
African National Congress | 705,576 | 33.01 | 14 | |
Democratic Party | 141,970 | 6.64 | 3 | |
Freedom Front | 44,003 | 2.06 | 1 | |
African Christian Democratic Party | 25,731 | 1.20 | 1 | |
Pan Africanist Congress | 22,676 | 1.06 | 0 | |
Africa Muslim Party | 20,954 | 0.98 | 0 | |
Islamic Party | 16,762 | 0.78 | 0 | |
Inkatha Freedom Party | 7,445 | 0.35 | 0 | |
Wes-Kaap Federaliste Party | 6,337 | 0.30 | 0 | |
South African Women's Party | 2,641 | 0.12 | 0 | |
Green Party | 2,611 | 0.12 | 0 | |
African Democratic Movement | 1,939 | 0.09 | 0 | |
Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International | 855 | 0.04 | 0 | |
Total | 2,137,742 | 100.00 | 42 | |
Spoilt votes | 10,714 |
Organisation and counting
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) entered the election late, and it was added to the already-printed ballot papers by means of a sticker.[15] In rural areas with limited infrastructure, people queued "for days" in order to vote.[15]
In a Sunday Independent article on the 20th anniversary of the election, Steven Friedman, who headed the IEC's information analysis department during the election, stated that the lack of a voters roll made verifying the results of the election difficult, and there were widespread accusations of cheating.[15] Friedman characterised the election as a "technical disaster but a political triumph", and intimated that the final results were as a result of a negotiated compromise, rather than being an accurate count of the votes cast, stating that it was impossible to produce an accurate result under the circumstances that the election was held. He wrote that he believed that the result of the election, which gave KwaZulu-Natal to the IFP; gave the National Party 20% of the vote share, and a Deputy President position; and held the ANC back from the two-thirds majority with the ability to unilaterally write the final constitution, helped prevent a civil war.[15]
Security
Denel Dynamics Seeker unmanned aerial vehicles were used to monitor the elections.[16]
Legacy
Following the elections, 27 April subsequently became a national public holiday, Freedom Day. In 2014, the election was commemorated on its 20th anniversary due to its historic importance.[17]
Notes
- Party existed during previous elections, but it was legally banned until 1990, after the last election
References
- Mafika (8 May 2014). "A look back at national election results - Brand South Africa".
- Leander (27 February 2014). "The South African general elections: 1994".
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Republic of South Africa Totals". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Schedule 6: "Transitional Arrangements", item 7.
- Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, Schedule 6: "Transitional Arrangements", item 7.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Eastern Cape". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Free State". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Gauteng". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - KwaZulu-Natal". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Mpumalanga". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - North West". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Northern Cape". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Limpopo". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 14 December 2010.
- "April 26-29, 1994 General Election Results - Western Cape". Election Resources on the Internet. Retrieved 13 December 2010.
- "The bargain that saved us in 1994". The Sunday Independent.
- "Flying unpiloted in the conflict zone and into civilian territory" (PDF). Council for Scientific and Industrial Research. p. 29. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 July 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2011.
- "S Africa marks democracy anniversary". www.aljazeera.com.
External links
![]() |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to 1994 South African general election. |
- US Department of the Army, South Africa Country Study, "The 1994 Elections"
- IEC results for 1994 election
- Proportional representation and alternative systems