Right-wing successes in S.A. polls

Press, 4 March 1988, Page 10

Right-wing successes in S.A. polls

NZPA-Reuter Johannesburg ( The white-supremacist Conservative Party won resounding victories in two Parliamentary byelections yesterday. The wins provided new evidence of surging support for the Right wing among South Africa’s five million whites. Conservative Party candidates increased majorities by emphatic margins in two rural, pro-apart-heid constituencies in Transvaal province, Standerton and SchweizerReneke. "I expect other successes which will strengthen our hopes for victory in the next General Election,” a jubilant Dr Andries Treurnicht, the Conservative Party', leader, told reporters, f / The by-elections were the first test of strength between Conservatives and the long-dominant National Party of President P. W. Botha since whites-only General Elec-

tions last May. Dr Treurnicht said the results underscored the swing to the Right which has made the Conservatives the second largest party in the 178-seat Parliament.

An African television crew covering the Standerton contest asked police to escort them to safety from the town hall after they were manhandled and threatened by Conservative supporters. The Conservatives denounce Pretoria’s modest apartheid reforms as a sell-out and charge that the Government is leading the country to rule by the African majority, which has no vote in national elections. Rosier de Ville, the victorious candidate in Standerton, said last week that if Conservatives came to power they would not hesitate to reintroduce apartheid laws, including one banning mixed marriages, which have been scrapped by the Government.