1948 Southern Rhodesian general election

The Southern Rhodesia general election of 15 September 1948 saw the Prime Minister Godfrey Huggins regain the overall majority he had lost at the previous election. Huggins won a landslide, reducing the opposition Liberal Party to a small minority.

Background

The 1946 election had left the United Party in a precarious position in an overall minority in the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly, and reliant on the support of the Rhodesia Labour Party. Huggins was therefore seeking an opportunity to re-establish an overall majority. However, Huggins knew from his experience in 1934 that he needed to justify asking for a dissolution of the Assembly and a general election, as the Governor was not necessarily willing to grant one merely because it had been asked for.

Early in 1948, Huggins made his move by proposing that his own United Party merge with the opposition Liberal Party (which was a right-wing organisation). He then went to the Legislative Assembly and put down a motion of confidence in his government which endorsed all its policies for the full term of the Assembly. The Liberal Party, sensing a trap, agreed to the principle of fusion of the two parties but insisted that it be on the basis of Liberal Party policy. When the vote of confidence debate was concluded on 6 February, Huggins accepted an amendment moved by the Rhodesia Labour Party, and the confidence motion then passed without a division. Huggins had lost his chance for an election but gained endorsement of his government.

This situation did not last long. In July, the Coinage and Currency Bill was defeated by one vote on a clause which would have allowed the Currency Board to provide accommodation. Although this was a minor matter, Huggins argued that it was an issue of confidence because this provision had been agreed with the governments of Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in the Central African Council; as negotiations to form a new majority government failed, the Governor granted a dissolution.

Supporting Huggins' position, the South African general election in May that year had seen a win by the National Party which largely represented Afrikaners. This election marked a transfer of power away from the English-speaking South Africans and shocked the mostly British descended Southern Rhodesians, who recoiled from the Liberal Party who were backed by the small Rhodesian Afrikaner community; the Liberal Party's policy on race was similar to the National Party's policy of Apartheid.

Voters tended not to blame the government for the economic difficulties and petrol shortages which had affected Rhodesia in the years since the war, and the renewed push towards federation with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland also encouraged support for the United Party. In the end, it delivered a landslide for Huggins; Liberal Party leader Jacob Smit lost his seat.

Electoral districts

A Delimitation Commission was set up to redraw the boundaries of the electoral districts. Although the previous districts had only been drawn up in 1938, owing to the major population movements in the war none of the districts were unchanged.

Franchise and electoral procedure

Two Acts passed in the run-up to the election made changes to electoral procedure. The Emergency Laws (Repeal and Transitional Provisions) Act, 1946 repealed most of the Active Service Voters Act, 1943 and therefore removed the ability of Southern Rhodesians serving in forces outside the colony to vote. The provision allowing postal votes to those living more than 10 miles from the polling station was retained.

The Electoral Amendment Act, 1946 made a further series of minor changes. It provided for a new full registration of voters once the delimitation had been completed, and facilitated the disqualification of imprisoned voters by requiring returns of those sentenced to prison. It also allowed candidates to withdraw before the poll.

Summary result

Electorate: 47,840 Turnout: 73.2%

Party	Seats in 1946	Candidates	Elected	Unopposed	Popular vote
Votes	%
United Party	13	30	24	-	19,731	56.3
Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party	12	28	5	-	10,678	30.5
Rhodesia Labour Party	3	16	1	-	4,558	13.0
Dominion Party	-	2	-	-	61	0.2
Totals	30	76	30	-	35,028	100%

Results

• DP – Dominion Party
• Lab – Rhodesia Labour Party
• L – Liberal Party
• UP – United Party

Constituency Electorate and turnout	Candidate	Party	Votes
AVONDALE 1,962 (80.0%)	John Richard Dendy Young	UP	1,021
	†Albert Rubidge Washington Stumbles	L	548
BULAWAYO CENTRAL 1,658 (73.9%)	†Donald Macintyre	UP	762
	William Hives Eastwood	Lab	327
	Peter Bawtree Gibbs	L	147
BULAWAYO DISTRICT 1,411 (77.3%)	Alexander Magnus Flett Stuart	UP	647
	John Morrison Macdonald	L	238
	Allan Watson Whittington	Lab	205
BULAWAYO EAST 2,100 (81.7%)	Robert Francis Halsted	UP	1,029
	Ian Donald MacGillivray	L	398
	Leonard James Pearl	Lab	288
BULAWAYO NORTH 1,567 (73.0%)	†Thomas Hugh William Beadle	UP	905
	Mrs. Ethel Davies	Lab	239
BULAWAYO SOUTH 1,657 (67.5%)	Henry Alfred Holmes	UP	678
	†James Stuart McNeillie	Lab	441
CHARTER 1,206 (66.8%)	†Jacob Letterstedt Smit	L	513
	Thomas John Mangwe Tilbury	UP	293
EASTERN 1,495 (66.2%)	Tom Ian Findlay Wilson	UP	631
	†Aubrey William Dunn	L	359
GATOOMA 1,204 (67.4%)	†George Munro	L	412
	Graham Caldwell Elliott	UP	399
GWELO 1,638 (75.0%)	Desmond William Lardner-Burke	UP	626
	†Robert Williamson	L	518
	Friedrich Ferdinand Ludwig Hein	Lab	84
HARTLEY 1,130 (70.1%)	†Patrick Archibald Wise	L	406
	Ralph Drew Palmer	UP	386
HIGHLANDS 2,218 (77.4%)	Robert Allan Ballantyne	UP	937
	†Charles Arden Bott	L	690
	William Rhodes Eades	Lab	90
HILLSIDE 1,844 (82.0%)	Julius Macdonald Greenfield	UP	677
	†Harry Herbert Davies	Lab	570
	Olive Hope Robertson	L	266
LOMAGUNDI 1,430 (73.7%)	†George Henry Hackwill	UP	653
	John Scott	L	401
MARANDELLAS 1,370 (71.6%)	Neville Gwynne Barrett	UP	544
	William Thomas Edward Fitzsimons	L	437
MAZOE 1,267 (75.2%)	John Moore Caldicott	UP	510
	Thomas Patrick Murray Cochran	L	443
QUE QUE 1,382 (71.9%)	†George Arthur Davenport	UP	559
	Thomas Nangle	Lab	269
	Henry William Watt	L	165
RAYLTON 1,627 (65.8%)	†Lawrence John Walter Keller	Lab	615
	Alexander Cockburn	UP	337
	Cecil Edward Mark Moore	L	119
SALISBURY CENTRAL 1,628 (68.9%)	†Leslie Manfred Noel Hodson	UP	722
	David Symond Richards	L	264
	George Arthur Henry Radford	Lab	135
SALISBURY CITY 1,729 (75.0%)	Bevis Alexander Barker	UP	765
	†Jacob Hendrik Smit	L	519
	Francis Michael Nilan	DP	13
SALISBURY DISTRICT 2,076 (78.4%)	†Leslie Major Cullinan	UP	1,082
	William Graham	L	545
SALISBURY GARDENS 1,587 (67.2%)	Noel St. Quinton	UP	701
	Frank Henry Shepley Waller	L	259
	Charles Olley	Lab	107
SALISBURY NORTH 1,772 (76.8%)	†Godfrey Martin Huggins	UP	1,024
	Hugh Volant Wheeler	L	337
SALISBURY SOUTH 2,683 (74.5%)	William Alexander Eustace Winterton	UP	1,095
	†Denzil Crichton Paul	L	713
	George Cyril Hamilton-Browne	Lab	143
	Stewart Edward Aitken-Cade	DP	48
SELUKWE 1,090 (68.5%)	Ian Douglas Smith	L	361
	Egon Aage Klifborg	Lab	258
	Petrus Johannes Cilliers	UP	128
SHABANI 1,651 (69.2%)	†Reginald Stephen Garfield Todd	UP	685
	Johannes Hendrik Hofmeyr	L	458
UMTALI 1,914 (79.7%)	†Edgar Cuthbert Fremantle Whitehead	UP	766
	†James Brown Lister	Lab	648
	George Washington Chace	L	112
VICTORIA 1,436 (71.4%)	†Raymond Osborne Stockil	L	633
	Richard Charles Ellis	UP	393
WANKIE 1,169 (62.4%)	Humphrey Vicary Gibbs	UP	376
	George Wilburn Rudland	L	204
	William James Swift	Lab	150
WESTERN 939 (65.3%)	†Patrick Bissett Fletcher	UP	400
	Michael Vernon Rorke	L	213

Changes during the Assembly

Bulawayo District

Alexander Magnus Flett Stuart died on 7 August 1949, and a byelection to replace him was held on 13 October 1949.

Constituency	Candidate	Party	Votes
BULAWAYO DISTRICT	William Hives Eastwood	Lab	381
	John Morrison Macdonald	L	351
	Peter George Hewison	UP	288
	Sydney Henderson Millar	Ind	89

Bulawayo North

Hugh Beadle resigned from the Assembly on 20 July 1950 to become a High Court judge. A byelection to fill his Assembly seat in Bulawayo North was held on 19 September 1950.

Constituency Electorate and turnout	Candidate	Party	Votes
BULAWAYO NORTH 1,925 (69.2%)	Cyril James Hatty	UP	507
	James Stuart McNeillie	Lab	471
	Eric Ashdown Smart	L	354

Highlands

Robert Allan Ballantyne died on 5 February 1953. A byelection to replace him was held on 22 April 1953.

Constituency Electorate and turnout	Candidate	Party	Votes
HIGHLANDS 2,334 (77.7%)	William Addison	UP	782
	Frederick Daniel John Lacey	Lab	531
	Dickerson Colfax Byron-Moore	RP	501

References

• Source Book of Parliamentary Elections and Referenda in Southern Rhodesia 1898–1962 ed. by F.M.G. Willson (Department of Government, University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Salisbury 1963)
• Holders of Administrative and Ministerial Office 1894–1964 by F.M.G. Willson and G.C. Passmore, assisted by Margaret T. Mitchell (Source Book No. 3, Department of Government, University College of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Salisbury 1966)