New Republic Party (South Africa)
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New Republic Party
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| Leader |
Sir de Villiers Graaff (interim) Radclyffe Cadman Vause Raw Bill Sutton |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Dissolved | 1988 |
| Preceded by | United Party |
| Ideology |
Conservatism Power sharing Pro-Commonwealth |
The New Republic Party (NRP) was a South African political party. It was formed as the successor to the disbanded United Party (UP) in 1977 and as a merger with the smaller Democratic Party. It drew its support mainly from the then Province of Natal, and tried to strike a moderate course between the apartheid policy of the ruling National Party (NP) and the liberal policies of the Progressive Federal Party (PFP).
The United Party had been the main opposition in the House of Assembly since it lost power in the 1948 election, but it was severely weakened by a split in 1975. To gain new support, the UP then merged with the Democratic Party to form the New Republic Party in 1977. After the UP wound up, the last UP leader, Sir de Villiers Graaff served as the interim national leader of the new party, with Radclyffe Cadman as parliamentary leader. Before the 1977 election, Graaff resigned and Cadman became the national leader.
However, a significant number of UP parliamentarians refused to remain with the new party; some joined the anti-apartheid PFP, and six were expelled and formed the centrist South African Party, eventually joining the majority NP. The NRP held 23 seats at the dissolution of parliament in 1977, down from the 41 the United Party had held previously.
The 1977 South African general election left the New Republic Party with only 10 parliamentary seats, and it lost the position as official opposition to the Progressive Federal Party. As Cadman was defeated in the election, a new leader was needed.Vause Raw was elected leader of the New Republic Party.
Raw discredited the party in a string of by-election defeats from 1977 to 1980, by making "extravagant" claims of support and predicting victory in areas where the party had no prospects. In fact, the NRP would win just two by-elections during its eleven-year existence: a provincial council seat in Natal, South Coast in July 1979, and another in East London in October 1980.
In August 1980, Raw announced that the party was "broke" outside of Natal. The party's support base stabilized somewhat, and it lost only 2 seats in the 1981 South African general election, while retaining eight. While it had lost its representation in other provinces, it had formed the government in the Provincial Council in Natal, which continued to be a stronghold of the party.
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