Politics of Rhodesia

Rhodesia had limited democracy in the sense that it had the Westminster parliamentary system with multiple political parties contesting the seats in parliament, but as the voting was dominated by the white settler minority, and black Africans only had a minority level of representation at that time, it was regarded internationally as a racist state.

The political party that held sway in the years after the unilateral declaration of independence was the Rhodesian Front, later known as the Republican Front. Ian Smith remained Prime Minister until it became Zimbabwe Rhodesia in 1979.

From 1899 to 1962 the Rhodesian Assembly comprised members elected to represent constituencies on a first past the post principle. At some stages, however, there were two-member constituencies, and in the early years there were some appointed members. The 1961 constitution adopted a more complex system intended to extend the franchise to wider sections of the community including non-whites – but without immediately bringing white rule to an end.

At the time of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence, Rhodesia's amended 1961 constitution (which was annexed to the UDI) provided for an Officer Administering the Government, to be appointed by the British Sovereign (or by the parliament if the Queen made no appointment), with political power residing with the unicameral Legislative Assembly.

Under the 1961 constitution, the Rhodesian Assembly had 65 elected members: 50 constituency members and 15 district members. The voter rolls had education, property and income qualifications. The main A roll was for citizens who satisfied high standards in these regards and 95% of its members were white and 5% were black or Asian. The B roll had lower qualification standards and 90% of its members were black and 10% were white or Asian. The B roll was about one-tenth of the size of the A roll. Both rolls voted in elections for constituencies and districts, but for elections in the constituencies, the B roll vote was capped at 20% of the total, and for elections in the districts, the A roll vote was capped at 20% of the total. This procedure was known as 'cross-voting'. In practice, the 50 constituency members would all be white and the 15 district members would mostly be black.

...
Wikipedia