1898_Transvaal_presidential_election
Presidential elections were held in the South African Republic between 3 January and 4 February 1898.[1] The result was a victory for incumbent Paul Kruger.[2][3]
 | |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||||
The incumbent president Paul Kruger was involved in a constitutional battle with Chief Justice John Gilbert Kotzé. After trying to unsuccessfully remove Kotzé though legislation, he waited until after the election to dismiss him.[4]
Kruger ran for re-election alongside two challengers.
A distinguished member of the Volksraad and commandant of the Lydenburg Commando, Schalk Willem Burger was popular with the British and the capitalists of Johannesburg.[5] This was due to the South African Industrial Report of 1897, produced by a committee under his leadership, which called for the lowering of tariffs, among other suggestions.[6] Despite the conclusions of the report, Burger was an ardent patriot; however, the conclusions of the report and support from anti-ZAR newspapers led some voters to distrust him.[5]
Vice-President and Commandant-General Piet Joubert had previously run against Kruger three times without success.[7][2] He had narrowly lost against him in 1893, losing by around 900 votes, with allegations of electoral manipulation in favour of Kruger and reports of voter turnout being greater than 100%.[8]
Claims were made that former Cape Colony Prime Minister Cecil Rhodes colluded against Kruger during the election campaign.[9]
| Candidate | Votes | % |
|---|---|---|
| Paul Kruger | 12,858 | 69.08 |
| Schalk Willem Burger | 3,753 | 20.16 |
| Piet Joubert | 2,001 | 10.75 |
| Total | 18,612 | 100.00 |
| Source: Annual Register[1] | ||
After his re-election Kruger removed Kotzé from office.[4]
- Annual Register for the Year 1898. Longmans, Green, and co. 1899. p. 353. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
- "Joubert, Petrus Jacobus" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 15 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 522.
- Dunning, Wm. A. (1898). "Record of Political Events". Political Science Quarterly. 13 (2): 387–388. doi:10.2307/2140186. JSTOR 2140186.
- Saturday review of politics, literature, science and art: Volume LXXXV. John W. Parker and Son. 1898. pp. 381–382. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
- Rompel, Frederik (1903). Heroes of the Boer War. Review of Reviews Office. p. 81. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
- Kruger, Paul (1902). The memoirs of Paul Kruger, four times president of the South African republic. The Century Co. p. 252. Retrieved 8 February 2021.
- Souza, Francis Hugh De (2004). A Question Of Treason. Kiaat Creations. ISBN 978-0-620-32030-6.
- Annual Register for the Year 1893. Longmans, Green, and co. 1894. p. 442. Retrieved 6 February 2021.
- "CECIL RHODES'S SCHEME.; Alleged Plan to Defeat Krueger in the Coming Transvaal Election". The New York Times. 14 November 1897. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
  | This South African elections-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |