the
opposition before the real struggle began. There are two stages in
the Presidential election at which a fight can under certain
circumstances be made. There were certainly two stages in this
election. The first is at the polls; the second is in the Volksraad,
when objections have to be lodged against candidates and a
commission of investigation appointed, and the steps necessary for
the installation of the new President have to be discussed. Mr.
Kruger and his party took ample precautions. It has been stated
openly and without contradiction, and is accepted in the Transvaal as
an unquestionable fact, that at least three properly elected members
of the Volksraad were 'jockeyed' out of their seats because they were
known to have leanings towards General Joubert. A number of his
supporters among the prominent officials of the Civil Service were
disfranchised by the action of President Kruger because they had
favoured his rival. In a country where the matters of Government
have been so loosely conducted it is no doubt fairly easy to find
flaws, and the President experienced no difficulty in establishing
sufficient case against General Joubert's supporters to satisfy the
persons appointed by him to investigate matters. On various pretexts
newly-elected members were debarred from taking their seats. In one
case, a strong supporter of General Joubert, who was returned by a
majority of something like six to one, was kept out of his seat
by the mere lodging of an objection by his opponent, the former
representative of the constituency; there being a provision in the
law that objections with regard to elections shall be heard by the
Volksraad, and that, pending the return of a new member, the member
last elected for the constituency shall continue to represent it.
That the objection lodged in this case was ridiculous in the extreme
had no bearing on the immediate result. The President, with admirable
gravity, said, 'The law provides that all objections must be heard by
the Volksraad, and that pending the decision the old member (a
strenuous supporter of his Honour) shall retain his seat; and before
all things we must support the law.' In the case of Mr. Esselen, who
was elected member for Potchefstroom, the most flagrant abuses were
proved to have been committed by the polling officer, the landdrost,
dead and absent men having (according to him) rolled up freely to
vote for the Krugerite candidate. Numbers of Mr. Esselen's s