The South Africa Act 1909 provided that the franchise in each province should be the same as that in the corresponding colony before the Union, until altered by the Union Parliament. The Act included entrenching clauses, providing that black and coloured voters could only be removed from the common voters roll in the Cape of Good Hope, by legislation passed by a two-thirds majority by both houses of Parliament in joint session. The franchise, in all parts of the Union, was limited to men over the age of 21. There were some additional qualifications and disqualifications which varied between provinces. The franchise in the Orange Free State and Transvaal was limited to white men. The traditional "Cape Qualified Franchise" system of the Cape of Good Hope was based on property and wage qualifications, equally open to people of all races. At the time of the National Convention in 1908, which drafted the terms of what became the South Africa Act, "22,784 Native and Coloured persons out of a total of 152,221 electors" were entitled to vote in Cape elections. Natal had a theoretically non-racial franchise, but in practice few non-white electors ever qualified. It was estimated, in 1908, that "200 non-Europeans out of a total of 22,786 electors had secured franchise rights".
Electoral system
The South Africa Act 1909 provided for single member electoral divisions, with members of the House of Assembly being elected using the relative majority electoral system.
The first Union Prime Minister, General Botha, assembled an electoral alliance before the first Union election. This grouping was composed of the governing parties of three of the colonies being united and some individual politicians from Natal. The colonial parties involved were the South African Party of Cape Colony, Het Volk from the Transvaal and Orangia Unie from the Orange River Colony. The alliance was known, in 1910, as the South African National Party. It subsequently formalised itself as the South African Party, in 1911.
Unionist Party of South Africa
The Unionist Party of South Africa was formed, in May 1910, under the leadership of Leander Starr Jameson, by the merger of the three colonial opposition parties joined by some individual politicians from Natal. The parties merged into the Unionist Party were the Unionist Party of Cape Colony, the Constitutional Party of the Orange River Colony and the Progressives of Transvaal. The party was a pro-British conservative party. It favoured the maintenance of a pro-British political culture in South Africa similar to that present in the other 'white dominions'.
South African Labour Party
The South African Labour Party, formed in March 1910 following discussions between trade unions and the Independent Labour Party of Transvaal, was a professedly socialist party representing the interests of the white working class. The party leader was Colonel F. H. P. Creswell.
Delimitation of electoral divisions
The South Africa Act 1909 had provided for a delimitation commission to define the boundaries for each electoral division. The representation by province is set out in the table below.
