1981 South African general election

1981 South African general election

← 1977 29 April 1981 1987 →
165 of the 171 seats in the House of Assembly 83 seats needed for a majority
Registered	2,290,626
Turnout	59.90% ( 11.38pp)
First party Second party Third party   PFP NRP Leader P. W. Botha Frederik van Zyl Slabbert Vause Raw Party National Progressive New Republic Last election 65.34%, 134 seats 16.95%, 17 seats 12.15%, 10 seats Seats won 131 26 8 Seat change 3 9 2 Popular vote 778,371 265,297 93,603 Percentage 57.66% 19.65% 6.93% Swing 7.68pp 2.70pp 5.22pp
Results by province
Prime Minister before election P. W. Botha National Elected Prime Minister P. W. Botha National

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General elections were held in South Africa on 29 April 1981. 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.^[1]

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) now under the leadership of Jaap Marais and representing right-wing Afrikaner conservatives, received 14.1% of the vote. The HNP's tally marked a historic result; twice that of the former official opposition NRP, and within a touching distance of the liberal PFP, but failed to win a seat under the first-past-the-post system due to splitting its voter base with the NP in more liberal areas and being decisively defeated in the Afrikaner heartlands.^[1] In 1985, under the same parliament, HNP candidate Louis Stofberg managed a win in a by-election for Sasolburg, but the success was soon overrun by the Conservative Party under NP renegade Andries Treurnicht.

Despite divisions among the opposition, the NP lost three seats compared to its record 1977 result.