1994 South African general election

South Africa’s first national election with universal adult suffrage, held from 26 to 29 April 1994, ended white-minority rule and brought the African National Congress to power.

1994 South African election results: The official vote totals and seat allocations from South Africa’s 1994 general election. The African National Congress won a national majority, while the National Party and Inkatha Freedom Party became major parliamentary parties.
Apartheid: South Africa’s system of legally enforced racial segregation and white-minority rule, in force from 1948 to the early 1990s. Ending apartheid’s political order made universal suffrage possible.
Nelson Mandela: South African anti-apartheid leader who became the country’s first democratically elected president in 1994. Mandela led the ANC’s campaign and became president after its election victory.
Nelson Mandela’s presidency: Nelson Mandela’s presidency of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. The election installed Mandela as president and began the first government elected by all adult citizens.
National Assembly of South Africa: The lower house of South Africa’s Parliament, elected by proportional representation. The election allocated seats in the new National Assembly through party-list proportional representation.
Negotiations to end apartheid: The political negotiations between South Africa’s government and liberation movements that shaped the transition from apartheid. Negotiators agreed on an interim constitution and elections as the route to majority rule.
F. W. de Klerk: South African president from 1989 to 1994 who negotiated the end of apartheid with liberation movements. De Klerk’s government negotiated the transition and contested the election as the National Party.
Constitution of South Africa: South Africa’s supreme law, adopted in 1996 and brought into force in 1997. The elected transition government replaced the interim framework with a permanent constitution.
Proportional representation: An electoral system that allocates seats roughly in proportion to parties’ shares of the vote. A national party-list system shaped how votes translated into seats in 1994.
CODESA: The Convention for a Democratic South Africa, a series of multiparty negotiations launched in 1991. CODESA began the formal negotiations that paved the way for the 1994 election.

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