Electoral Quota Consolidation Act, 1942

by enacted by the Parliament of South Africa

Act

To consolidate the laws relating to the determination of the number of members of the House of Assembly to be elected in each Province and the division of the Union into electoral divisions and the taking of a census.

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(Signed by the Governor-General in Afrikaans.)
(Assented to 17th April, 1942.)

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Be it enacted by the King’s Most Excellent Majesty, the Senate and the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa, as follows:―

Replacement of section 32 of South Africa Act.

1. The following section is hereby substituted for section thirty-two of the South Africa Act, 1909:

“Constitution of House of Assembly.

32. The House of Assembly shall be composed of―

(a)		one hundred and fifty members, each of whom shall be directly elected by the persons entitled to vote at an election of such a member in an electoral division delimited as provided in section forty-one; and
(b)		three members elected in accordance with the provisions of the Representation of Natives Act, 1936 (Act No. 12 of 1936).”

Replacement of section 41 of South Africa Act.

2. The following section is hereby substituted for section forty-one of the South Africa Act, 1909:

“Delimitation of electoral divisions.

41. (1) In this section the expression ‘adult Union nationals’ means persons (whether males or females) of the age of twenty-one years or over, who are Union nationals or deemed to be Union nationals in terms of the Union Nationality and Flags Act, 1927 (Act No. 40 of 1927). (2) As soon as may be after every census which the Governor-General-in-Council was obliged to cause to be taken in terms of section three of the Census Act, 1910 (Act No. 2 of 1910), the Governor-General-in-Council shall appoint a delimitation commission consisting of three judges of the Supreme Court of South Africa, which shall divide each province of the Union into so many electoral divisions that their number bears, as nearly as possible, the same ratio to one hundred and fifty, as the number of European adult Union nationals in the province in question (as ascertained by means of the said census) bears to the total number of European adult Union nationals in the Union as ascertained by means of the said census. (3) In dividing a province into electoral divisions in terms of sub-section (2) the said commission shall act in accordance with the provisions of section forty.”

Amendment of section 3 of Act 2 of 1910.

3. The following sub-section is hereby substituted for sub-section (1) of section three of the Census Act, 1910:

“(1) In the year 1946 and in the year 1951 and thereafter every ten years, the Governor-General shall cause a census of the European population of the Union to be taken, and the Governor-General may cause a census to be taken in any year in which he is not required to cause a census to be taken as aforesaid.”

Repeals.

4. Sections thirty-three and thirty-four of the South Africa Act and section nineteen of the Census Act, 1910 (Act No. 2 of 1910), as inserted by section two of the Census, Delimitation and Electoral Act, 1941 (Act No. 23 of 1941), and the Electoral Quota Act, 1937 (Act No. 21 of 1937), are hereby repealed.

Short title.

5. This Act shall be called the Electoral Quota Consolidation Act, 1942.