Talk:1994 South African general election

A fact from this article was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the On this day section on April 27, 2011.

This article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects:

Elections and Referendums This article is within the scope of WikiProject Elections and Referendums, an ongoing effort to improve the quality of, expand upon and create new articles relating to elections, electoral reform and other aspects of democratic decision-making. For more information, visit our project page.Elections and ReferendumsWikipedia:WikiProject Elections and ReferendumsTemplate:WikiProject Elections and ReferendumsElections and Referendums articles South Africa: Politics Top‑importance This article is within the scope of WikiProject South Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of South Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.South AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject South AfricaTemplate:WikiProject South AfricaSouth Africa articles Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the project's importance scale. This article is supported by the South African politics task force.

The contentious topics procedure applies to this page. This page is related to discussions about infoboxes, and edits adding, deleting, collapsing, or removing verifiable information from infoboxes, which has been designated as a contentious topic. Editors who repeatedly or seriously fail to adhere to the purpose of Wikipedia, any expected standards of behaviour, or any normal editorial process may be blocked or restricted by an administrator. Editors are advised to familiarise themselves with the contentious topics procedures before editing this page.

Should the ANC and the NP really be the only parties in the information template at the top of the page? As far as I am aware, the parties were not in alliances or blocks but contested the election independently. Therefore, I think a few of the larger parties like IFP, FF and DP, should be added as well. If so, this goes for all the other post-apartheid election pages as well. -- 78.70.52.31 (talk) 07:19, 14 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can a very wonderful person put these figures in a table of some sort? It looks like an earthquake hit the page! --Ryan! | Talk 21:05, Mar 5, 2005 (UTC)

What do the numbers in the tables mean ? Percentages ? Seats won ? Headers are needed on the top of each table, please. Thanks. -- PFHLai 19:12, 2005 Apr 21 (UTC)

The percentages indicate the number of people who voted for that party for eg. 62.6% of people who voted in the 1994 elections in SA voted for the ANC. The seats are the number of seats the party holds in parliament, therefore the ANC has 252 seats which is close to the 2/3 majority.Fedi

Anybody know who owns the copyright on the 1994 ballot paper? I know having a picture of a ballot paper in a wikipedia article is unusual, but this particular ballot is kinda famous in South Africa: people have it framed on their walls, it appears in History textbooks, etc.

Whoever took the picture has a copyright on the picture; I don't think ballots are copyrighted anyway, but its the photo copyright that is important. If you have the ballot itself, just take a good picture of it and you can release it under one of the licenses Wikipedia is allowed to use. It would be a great addition to this article. Recury 14:30, 25 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I have a copy, will try take a picture sometime. Greenman 08:45, 28 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Surely saying "universal suffrage" is enough and more accurate that simply saying "free election" (what does "free" in this sense mean, anyway)? If "free" means people weren't forced to vote for a certain party, then all South African elections since 1910 had been free. If "free" is a way of saying "universal suffrage", then why say it, when a few lines lower down that exact phrase is already being used? -- leuce 20:35, 22 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Coloureds had the vote when the Union of South Africa was established. They were only disenfranchised in 1956. So you could say the 1994 elections were the first multiracial elections since 1956, but that kinda softens the effect, doesn't it? -- leuce (talk) 16:10, 29 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Point taken, however the current wording is a bit "wishy washy" and doesn't convey the significance and full impact of the election. I'll try to come up with a better phrasing, but keeping the same meaning. Zunaid 21:49, 29 January 2009 (UTC)[reply]

There are some allegations that the elections were fraudulent and that the results being used were actually "negotiated results".

The 1994 election was so chaotic that no accurate result could be computed. Hence, its final outcome was essentially the product of negotiation. The ANC was accorded 63% of the vote, but this might well have exaggerated its true support. Opposition parties initially wanted to challenge the election result, but in the end they chose rather to accept it. For to question the outcome or demand a re-run of the poll was to risk throwing the country into the vortex of the people’s war once more – and few people had the stomach for that. Most South Africans preferred to take comfort in the notion of a miracle transition and to hope that this would bring about the bright new future the ANC had long been promising. http://www.sairr.org.za/sairr-today/news_item.2009-09-03.4310602162/

Shouldn't this be mentioned in the article? --41.19.32.59 (talk) 10:35, 25 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Yes agree. Most seemed to think that the IFP vote in particular was overstated though, don't have sources now, but feel free to go ahead with your mention. Greenman (talk) 11:58, 25 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

The lead section says "ANC leaders opted to form a tripartite Government of National Unity with the National Party and the Inkatha Freedom Party." Is the use of the word "opted" really accurate? My understanding is that it wasn't optional; that the Interim Constitution required that a GNU be formed. - htonl (talk) 02:12, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The constitution at the time stated "A party holding at least 20 seats in the National Assembly and which has decided to participate in the government of national unity, shall be entitled to be allocated one or more of the Cabinet portfolios" (link) so it wasn't really optional if they wanted to be part of government. Greenman (talk) 10:07, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thnaks. I've reworded that sentence accordingly. - htonl (talk) 13:02, 27 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't have the specifics of the polling places that South Africa set up around the world for ex-patriots, but I volunteered in a polling place at the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, California. It seems that, if anyone can research this information, these polling places are of an historic nature. LeeTramp 01:11, 19 July 2011 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Amosslee (talk • contribs)

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on South African general election, 1994. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20110708162005/http://www.csir.co.za/publications/pdfs/02_pdfsam_12-47.pdf to http://www.csir.co.za/publications/pdfs/02_pdfsam_12-47.pdf
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080628132254/http://www.elections.org.za/Elections94.asp to http://www.elections.org.za/Elections94.asp
• Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20080830075911/http://www.uiowa.edu/~electdis/SouthAfrica.htm to http://www.uiowa.edu/~electdis/SouthAfrica.htm

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 5 June 2024).

• If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
• If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 15:13, 11 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion:

• VoteMural-enh.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:22, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• General Constand Viljoen.jpg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 00:55, 5 April 2020 (UTC)[reply]

How was the elections Zildjian Jacobs (talk) 12:03, 11 September 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Not what I want expected to see here - is this section worth having? Mdrb55 (talk) 21:29, 2 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion:

• Coat of Arms of South Africa in vector SVG.svg

Participate in the deletion discussion at the nomination page. —Community Tech bot (talk) 07:36, 5 December 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I was wondering why there are 2 flags in the infobox. The old flag was removed as the official flag of the nation on the 20th of April and as far as I can see, should not be in there as voting started after that date. Does anyone else have an opinion on this as I personally think it should be removed. The C of E God Save the King! (talk) 10:39, 20 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]

There is a discussion in progress on Talk:2024_South_African_general_election#Infobox_legislative_election_instead_of_Infobox_election which supposedly affects this page and "all elections in South Africa since 1994, not just the 2024 elections." Wowzers122 (talk) 06:05, 16 June 2024 (UTC)[reply]