De Klerk’s Party Suffers Major Blow in Key By-Election
President Frederik W. de Klerk’s National Party suffered an embarrassing defeat Wednesday in a by-election considered a gauge of white support for his efforts to share power with blacks.
Andries Beyers of the pro-apartheid Conservative Party defeated his National Party opponent, Theunis Kruger, by 2,140 votes out of more than 17,000 cast for a seat held by the Nationals since 1948.
The whites-only election in the Potchefstroom constituency of rural western Transvaal province marked the second major defeat in three months for the National Party in a parliamentary by-election.
De Klerk’s party has a strong majority in the dominant white chamber of Parliament and he has promised to continue reforms.
But both parties had called the election an indication of white support for them. Conservative Party leaders contend that a majority of whites oppose the reforms.
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