1938 South African general election 1938 South African general election The 1938 South African general election was held, on 18 May 1938, for the 150 seats in the House of Assembly of the Union of South Africa. The United Party won an absolute majority. The National Party (led by the Prime Minister J. B. M. Hertzog) and the South African Party (whose leader was the Deputy Prime Minister Jan Smuts) were in coalition at the time of the South African general election, 1933. After the election the two coalition parties fused, to become the United South African National Party (commonly known as the United Party).
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom century as a convention of the constitution, the position of Leader of the Opposition was given statutory recognition in 1937 by the Ministers of the Crown Act. British Prime Ministers have never been elected directly by the public. A Prime Minister need not be a party leader; David Lloyd George was not a party leader during his service as prime Minister during World War I, and neither was Ramsay MacDonald from 1931 to 1935. Prime Ministers have taken office because they were members of either the Commons or Lords, and either inherited a majority in the Commons or won more