Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931

Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931
Act to amend the law relating to the franchise.
Citation	Act No. 41 of 1931
Enacted by	Parliament of South Africa
Date of Royal Assent	10 June 1931
Date commenced	10 June 1931
Date repealed	1 May 1946
Legislative history
Bill	Franchise Laws (Amendment) Bill
Bill citation	A.B. 5—'31
Bill published on	5 February 1931
Introduced by	D. F. Malan, Minister of the Interior
Repealing legislation
Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946
Summary
Removed all remaining franchise qualifications applying to white men over the age of 21.
Status: Repealed

The Franchise Laws Amendment Act, 1931, was an act of the Parliament of South Africa which removed all property and educational franchise qualifications applying to white men. It was passed a year after the Women's Enfranchisement Act, 1930, which extended the franchise to all white women. The consequence of these two acts was that all white people over the age of 21 (except for those convicted of certain crimes and those declared mentally unsound by a court) were entitled to vote in elections of the House of Assembly.

The act retained the property and educational qualifications for black and coloured men, who were in any case only eligible to vote in the Cape Province. The result was a further dilution of the electoral power of the non-white population.

The act was repealed in 1946 when the franchise laws were consolidated into the Electoral Consolidation Act, 1946.

References

• Loveland, Ian (1999). By Due Process of Law: Racial Discrimination and the Right to Vote in South Africa 1855–1960. Oxford: Hart Publishing. p. 164. ISBN 9781841130491.