1977 South African general election

South African general election, 1977

30 November 1977 (1977-11-30)
All 165 seats in the House of Assembly
First party Second party Third party   Leader B. J. Vorster Colin Eglin Radclyffe Cadman Party National Progressive New Republic Last election 123 7 41 Seats won 134 17 10 Seat change 11 10 31
House of Assembly after the election
Prime Minister before election B. J. Vorster National Elected Prime Minister B. J. Vorster National

The 1977 South African general election was held on 30 November 1977. The National Party, led by John Vorster won a landslide victory in the House of Assembly. The newly formed Progressive Federal Party, led by Colin Eglin became the official opposition. The New Republic Party, successor to the United Party, won only 10 seats, all but one of them in Natal Province. Once again, the Herstigte Nasionale Party failed to win any seats.

In the 1977 elections the National Party got its best-ever result in the elections with support of 64.8% of the white voters and 134 seats in parliament out of 165. Vorster, however resigned as Prime Minister for alleged health reasons, not even a year later on 28 September 1978.

Results

Summary of the 30 November 1977 South African general election results

Party		Leader	Votes	%Votes	Seats	Change	%Seats
	National Party	John Vorster	689 108	64.8%	134	+15	81.2%
	Progressive Federal Party	Colin Eglin	177 705	16.7%	17	+11	10.3%
	New Republic Party	Radclyffe Cadman	123 245	12.1%	10	-31	6.1%
	Herstigte Nasionale Party	Jaap Marais	34 161	3.2%	0	±0	0.0%
	South African Party	Myburgh Streicher	17 915	1.7%	3	+3	2.2%
	Others		6 171	0.6%	1	+0	0.6%
	Total			100.0%	165	-1	100.0%

Sources

African elections