Post Apartheid South Africa

The first ballot I ever acquired is a fairly common one but a very special one.

In 1994 post apartheid elections were held in South Africa on 27 April. The elections were the first in which people of all races were allowed to take part. An

ndependent electoral commission was set up to supervise and plan the election. Millions queued over a three day period. Altogether 19,726,579 votes were counted as valid and turnout of 85% was recorded. The ANC won the most seats in the national assembly taking 252 out of 400. A Government of National Unity was formed with Nelson Mandela is the first black chief executive of South Africa. The system used for electing the president is essentially a parliamentary one. The president comes from the largest party in the national assembly.

One of the

ballot

I have is from the KwaZulu/Natal province. This is the most common one available online. Genuine ones have a water mark, micro printing and of course it most famous feature, the addition of Inkatha as a post script at the bottom after a last minute reversal

of the parties decision to boycott the election

in an attempt to try and hold back the ground swell of support for Mandela. The inclusion of Inkatha is not on all provincial ballots. If any one knows which ones they are not on that would be helpful.

Below is a copy of the national ballot. I have managed to get one of these from eBay but it hasn't arrived yet.

The national assembly of 400 members was elected using a two tier method, 200 elected via list in provinces and 200 elected via a national list. The scrapping of the FPTP was seen as a commitment on behalf of the ANC towards a government of national unity. A FPTP system used in 94 would have produced an extraordinarily lop sided parliament. The two

tier

system greatly benefited smaller parties and there was some evidence of split ticket voting at the national and provincial level. 27 April is now a public holiday in South Africa, Freedom Day.

I have 3 left in my collection after buying quite a few and giving some of them away to South African friends.

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