Southern Rhodesian General Election, 1962 - Electoral System

Electoral System

The electorate was divided into the 'A roll' and the 'B roll'. The 'A roll' and consisted of people meeting certain income and property qualifications, which were lowered if the person had more extensive education. This in practice meant that 95.2% of those on the A roll were of European descent. The 'B roll' which consisted of those meeting a lesser income cap or a lesser property cap, both of which were lowered in liéu with a longer education. 91.3% of those on the B roll were of African descent, although some Europeans only qualified for this roll. The figures were exaggerated by a largely successful campaign on behalf of African nationalist leaders to persuade their supporters not to register in order to boycott the election. Most Africans did not qualify for either roll anyway.

There were two different types of place returning members to the House of Assembly. The colony was divided into 50 constituencies each returning a single member, and in addition there were 15 districts which also returned one member each. For the constituencies, voters from the 'A roll' and the 'B roll' could both vote, with their votes of equal value. Due to the fact that the 'A roll' was substantially larger than the 'B roll', these constituencies were almost entirely elected by Rhodesians of European descent. Theoretically, if the 'B roll' votes was more than a quarter of the total, they would be reduced in value to a quarter, but in practice this never happened due to the low enrolment and low turnout.

Both rolls also voted for the district seats. However the total votes from the 'A roll' were reduced to equal a quarter of those of the 'B roll' voters. This meant that the district seats were largely elected by Africans.