The Democratic Party was a South African political party formed in 1973 by former Interior Minister Theo Gerdener after he broke away from the ruling National Party. The party hoped to be a rallying point for the ''verligte'' (enlightened) Nationalists who had grown disillusioned with the hardline

apartheid Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...

government of

John Vorster Balthazar Johannes "B. J." Vorster (; also known as John Vorster; 13 December 1915 – 10 September 1983) was a South African apartheid politician who served as the prime minister of South Africa from 1966 to 1978 and the fourth state presiden ...

and attracted support from younger Afrikaners. The party advocated liberalizing the country's apartheid laws to some degree and emancipating Asian and " Coloured" South Africans and had a goal of re-establishing South Africa as a

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a union of sovereign groups or states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

of ethnic groupings. The party contested seven seats in the 1974 South African election but failed to elect any members to the South African parliament. In 1975, Gerdener contested a parliamentary

by-election A by-election, also known as a special election in the United States and the Philippines, a bye-election in Ireland, a bypoll in India, or a Zimni election (Urdu: ضمنی انتخاب, supplementary election) in Pakistan, is an election used to f ...

on behalf of the DP in what was supposed to be a safe government seat and lost by only 30 votes. In 1977, the Democratic Party merged with the United Party to form the New Republic Party.

References

Political parties established in 1973 Political parties disestablished in 1977 Defunct political parties in South Africa Organisations associated with apartheid {{Apartheid-sa-stub