South African General Elections
AS OF 2026-07-22 · 27 CONTESTS · general election, 29 May 2024 · WIKIPEDIA, NATIONAL ELECTORAL AUTHORITIES
Next election · general election, expected 2029 · Capital · Johannesburg in the metro rankings →
Where the chamber sits · 5.1 of 10, left to right, spread 2.7 →
Every South African general election from Union in 1910 to 2024: the whites-only parliaments of segregation and apartheid, stated plainly as such, and the democratic era from 1994's queues to the 2024 coalition, for novices and experts alike.
General elections
27
1910–2024; universal franchise only since 1994
Latest
2024
ANC · Cyril Ramaphosa
Assembly seats today
400
201 for a majority
First free election
1994
the ANC has led every government since
The chronology
Every general election, newest first, in three eras. The pre-1994 contests were held on a racially restricted franchise and every page says so: they are part of the historical record, not equivalents of the democratic era.
The democratic era · 1994–2024
The 1994 election was the first in which every adult South African could vote — queues stretched for days and Nelson Mandela's ANC won just short of two-thirds. Three decades of ANC dominance followed, until 2024 broke the majority and produced a government of national unity.
ANC 159DA 87MK 58others 31
ANC 230DA 84EFF 44others 14
African National Congress 249Democratic Alliance 89Economic Freedom Fighters 25others 10
African National Congress 264Democratic Alliance 67Congress of the People 30
African National Congress 279Democratic Alliance 50Inkatha Freedom Party 28others 9
African National Congress 266Democratic Party 38Inkatha Freedom Party 34others 8
African National Congress 252National Party 82Inkatha Freedom Party 43
The apartheid parliament · 1948–1989
D. F. Malan's National Party won the whites-only 1948 election on the apartheid platform and never lost again, entrenching minority rule for four decades. The last Black voters were removed from the rolls, the Republic left the Commonwealth in 1961, and by the tricameral 1980s the white chamber governed a country in revolt.
National Party 94Conservative Party 39Democratic Party 33
National Party 123Conservative Party 22Progressive Federal Party 19
National Party 131Progressive Federal Party 26New Republic Party 8
National Party 134Progressive Federal Party 17New Republic Party 10
National Party 122United Party 41Progressive Party 6
National Party 117United Party 47Progressive Party 1others 1
National Party 126United Party 39Progressive Party 1
National Party 105United Party 49Progressive Party 1
National Party 103United Party 53
National Party 94United Party 57Labour Party 5
Herenigde Nasionale Party 70United Party 65Afrikaner Party 9
The Union's whites-only parliament · 1910–1943
From Union in 1910, the House of Assembly was elected almost entirely by white voters — a qualified Cape franchise for Black and Coloured voters was progressively stripped away. Politics turned on Boer–British reconciliation, Hertzog's nationalism, the 1933 fusion of Hertzog and Smuts, and the war split of 1939.
United Party 89Herenigde Nasionale Party 43Labour Party 9
United Party 111Purified National Party 27Dominion Party 8
National Party 75South African Party 61Independents 10
National Party 78South African Party 61Labour Party 8
National Party 63South African Party 53Labour Party 18
South African Party 77National Party 44Labour Party 10others 2
National Party 43South African Party 41Unionist Party 25others 1
South African Party 54Unionist Party 39National Party 27
South African National Party 66South African, Orangia Unie, and Het Volk 66Unionist Party 36
The long arc in charts
Hover any point for the exact figure. Pre-1994 percentages describe the restricted rolls of the era, not the population.
The democratic era, 1994–2024
Turnout has slid from the near-total participation of 1994 toward 59% in 2024, while the ANC's share fell from Mandela's heights to the 40% that ended one-party government.
The National Party's grip, 1948–1989
Within the whites-only electorate, the NP rose from its narrow 1948 win, a minority of even that restricted vote, to two-thirds dominance, before reform politics fractured its base.
Records & superlatives
Highest democratic turnout
89.3%
1999 general election
Lowest democratic turnout
58.6%
2024 general election
Highest democratic vote share
69.7%
African National Congress, 2004
Most seats won
279
African National Congress, 2004
Whites-only elections under apartheid
11
1948–1989, all won by the National Party
First fully free election
1994
the first vote open to all adult South Africans
How South African elections work
Pure proportional representation
Since 1994 the National Assembly's 400 seats are allocated in proportion to the national vote, with no threshold, a deliberate choice for inclusiveness after apartheid, which lets even small parties win a seat.
Parliament elects the President
Voters choose parties; the Assembly then elects the President as both head of state and government. That is why 2024's hung result produced a negotiated government of national unity rather than a runoff.
The franchise is the history
From 1910 the vote was overwhelmingly white, and the small Cape non-white franchise was stripped away step by step. Every pre-1994 result on these pages describes an electorate designed to exclude most South Africans.
Dominance and its limits
The NP won every whites-only election from 1948; the ANC has won every democratic one. But 2024 showed the system can force sharing: no majority, and a coalition cabinet spanning old rivals.