1898 Transvaal presidential election

3 January–4 February 1898


Nominee	Paul Kruger	Schalk Willem Burger	Piet Joubert
Popular vote	12,858	3,753	2,001
Percentage	69.08%	20.16%	10.75%

President before election

Paul Kruger

Elected President

Paul Kruger

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]

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Background

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]

Candidates

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]

Results


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]

Aftermath

After his re-election Kruger removed Kotzé from office.^[4]

References

^ ^a ^b Annual Register for the Year 1898. Longmans, Green, and co. 1899. p. 353. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b "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.
^ ^a ^b Saturday review of politics, literature, science and art: Volume LXXXV. John W. Parker and Son. 1898. pp. 381–382. Retrieved 24 January 2021.
^ ^a ^b 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.

Elections and referendums in the Boer republics and South African colonial territories

Cape Colony
Parliamentary elections	1854 1858–59 1862 1866 1870 1874 1878–79 1884 1888–89 1894 1898 1903 1904 1908

Griqualand West
Parliamentary elections	1873

Natalia Republic and Natal
Parliamentary elections	1838 1839 1840 1841 1842 1857 1859 1880 1883 1892 1893 1897 1901 1902 1906
Referendums	1909

Orange Free State
Presidential elections	1854 1855 1860 1863 1868 1873 1878 1883 1888 1893 1896
Parliamentary elections	1854 1907

Transvaal
Presidential elections	1872 1883 1888 1893 1898
Parliamentary elections	1855 1856 1893 1907