Elections to the Coloured and Indian chambers of the new segregated parliament were held on 22 and 28 August respectively. Both elections were characterised by widespread protests, demonstrations and police action against protesters and boycotters.
The results of the election indicated a large-scale rejection of the new constitution. The main organisations supporting the boycott claimed the stay-away as a major victory for the democratic cause. They also claimed that the government could not interpret the results as a mandate to implement the new dispensation.
The protests and boycott of the polls were the result of months of campaigning by those organisations calling for a rejection of the new constitution. The United Democratic Front (UDF) was a leading force in the campaign and members of the UDF bore the brunt of repressive action.
The campaign against the new constitution began in earnest after the white referendum in November last year. Initially, those organisations favouring participation were divided over whether to call for a referendum first. In early January the Coloured Labour Party decided to call for direct elections to the Coloured House of Representatives. In February the government announced that there would be no referendum and announced the August dates for the elections.
Campaign meetings by the participating parties were poorly attended and were broken up on numerous occasions by protesters. Registration of voters was compulsory, and yet only 65 per cent of eligible Coloured voters registered and 89 per cent of Indian voters.
The UDF campaign was conducted largely through the collection of signatures for a petition rejecting the constitution. Meetings were held throughout the country and members conducted a door to door campaign in most areas. Police repression was constant. Activists collecting signatures were constantly harassed and assaulted. Anti-election posters were torn down, documents and petition forms confiscated and canvassors arrested. Meetings in certain areas were banned and at several rallies teargas, batons and dogs were used to disperse people attending (CT 24.4.84; RDM 1.5.84; CH 12.5.84; FM 29.6.84; RDM 10/11.7.84; CT 14.7.84; CT 6.8.84; RDM 17.8.84; S.Exp. 19.8.84; see FOCUS 53, p. 6).
The turnout in both elections was very low. In the Coloured election the government claimed that just over 30 per cent of registered voters went to the polls. The UDF, the main organisation supporting the boycott, put the figure closer to 17.5 per cent in recognition of the fact that over 600,000 eligible Coloured voters did not register or were not included on the voters roll. In the Indian election the turnout was even lower, despite the fact that more Indians registered as voters. The official figure given was 20.3 per cent, but this represented only 16.6 per cent of eligible voters (T 30.8.84; SNS 16/84).
The government claimed that the major factor contributing to the low turnout was intimidation on the part of the boycotters. However, a number of observers and white parliamentary opposition members noted that the show of force put on by the police contributed to the low poll by generating more sympathy for the boycott cause. Where serious violence occurred it was invariably provoked by the indiscriminate beating up of peaceful protesters (CT 25.8.84).
Over the week of the elections more than 200 people were detained or arrested. The Minister of Law and Order said after the Coloured election that arrests had been made in connection with the 'creation of a revolutionary climate' during the Coloured election campaign and polling day. He accused the South African Communist Party and the ANC of having 'encouraged the situation' (ST 26.8.84).
On 22 August over 630,000 Coloured pupils and students boycotted classes. Students at all black and English-speaking university campuses took some form of action. Leather whips, buckshot, rubber bullets and dogs were used by the police to disperse students who marched on polling booths to protest (RDM 23.8.84).
In the Transvaal, police broke up demonstrations at polling stations in Bosmont, Daveyton, Tembisa, Eldorado Park, Westbury, Riverlea and Kliptown; in the Western Cape, outside polling booths in Bishop Lavis and Paarl. Teargas and rubber bullets were used and one person was injured in the back by a rubber bullet outside the Eldorado Park polling station (RDM 23.8.84).
The Indian polling day was marked by even more violence than the Coloured polling day. In Lenasia, police supported by campaign workers of Indian candidates dispersed a crowd of more than 500 protesters who had gathered outside the polling station. Seconds after the crowd was told to disperse the police were given an order to charge. Anyone in their way was beaten with whips and batons. Several reporters as well as a foreign television crew were attacked by police and supporters of the election (Star 29.8.84).
In another incident in Lenasia about 20 policemen smashed the windows of a parked van which had about 15 passengers inside. The passengers were dragged out and severely beaten with whips. The passengers had been sitting in the van and had not been participating in the demonstration, which took place about 300 metres away from where they were parked. The incident infuriated the group of protesters who then attacked the police with stones. The police were forced to retreat in the face of the crowd (S 29.8.84).
Reports of violence were received from 19 different areas around the country. In Potchefstroom police dispersed a group of African demonstrators who marched on a polling booth in Actonville police attacked a crowd of about 1,000 people, mostly Transvaal Indian Congress supporters, with whips and teargas. In Potchefstroom and in Soweto African schoolchildren stoned school buildings and vehicles in protests triggered by the elections (FT/RDM 29.8.84).
