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Africa News afrol News
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Africa News afrol News
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A disappointing 53% of the electorate chose to stay at home. Political analyst Tom Lodge says voters were 'dissatisfied, but not angry enough'. The relatively poor results for the ruling ANC underline the suspicion that mostly black voters did not bother to go to the poll. As the count continues this evening and more and more rural votes have been registered, the ANC is enhancing its lead. Still, the ruling party has made substantial losses to the Democratic Alliance (DA) in its former strongholds. So far, the ANC has secured 46 local councils, while the DA has taken 18. The DA is the democratised successor of the two former apartheid ruling parties, mainly obtaining "white votes" but being able to secure a substantial part of protest votes from black South Africans in these municipal elections. The party is in for obtaining up to 30% of the vote, while citizens of European descent account for some 20% of South Africa's population. The first released counts from South Africa this morning showed a comfortable lead for the ruling party ANC, with 54% of the popular vote. This would, however, have been down 12% from presidential elections last year, and meant an unexpected setback. The principal party challenging the ANC, the Democratic Alliance (DA) had obtained 35% of the vote. The newest numbers are 58% for the ANC and 31% for the DA, and the ruling party is expected to rise to over 60% of the vote when the final results are released, as the first results came from DA strongholds. The DA however, probably is in for a decisive victory in the Western Cape Province, although the ANC spokesman states that the DA's premature "claim to victory is misplaced". There are still no official counts released for Cape Town, nor for other major South African cities. As 40% of vote counting has been completed in Cape Town, the DA has obtained 61,67% of the vote, compared to the ANC's 29,65%. - The DA's declaration of victory is premature as many of the ward results in traditional ANC strongholds are still outstanding. These votes are critical to the overall PR result and we expect the ANC position to steadily improve during the course of the day, ANC Provincial Leader Ebrahim Rasool said this morning. This evening, the DA's lead is that comfortable that victory is close to sure. In other important constituencies, the ANC is closer to victory. In Johannesburg, the ANC has secured 58,9% of the vote compared to the DA's 34%, as 103 of the city's 109 wards had been counted. The DA candidate for mayor has already called ANC mayor-elect Amos Masondo to congratulate him on the victory. Statements so far from the ANC indicate that the party is relieved by not making even greater losses. "Our gains in the Overberg and the Karoo show growth for the ANC. The rural battle was always going to be difficult given the new system of local government which does away with the provision which reserved 50% of the wards to minority communities. In the Western Cape this had benefited the ANC," said Rasool this morning. "Nevertheless we have by and large managed to maintain our levels of support and in some areas improved," he continues. DA leader Tony Leon has already stated his satisfaction over the elections and the results, as his party now is a more serious challenge to the ANC and opposition will become more real. "One of the personal delights for me in this election is the evidence of real progress in establishing the DA among black voters, especially in Gauteng," he said. The DA has even managed to obtain 4% of the votes in Soweto. The most exciting poll has been expected in Cape Town, where the DA and its candidate Peter Marais has been the favourite throughout the campaign. However, the DA's confidence may still be dented by breakaways by former NNP councillors, opposing the DA but possibly willing to cooperate with the ANC. ANC candidate Lynne Brown has appeared uninspiring in the campaign, but been able to make some gains during the last weeks. The close vote made the Cape Town campaigns specially bitter, with personal attacks from both candidates dominating. Marais seem to have won voters' sympathy, though, in the province with the highest voters turnout (62%). These municipal elections are the first votes for municipalities that incorporate separate white suburbs and black townships into single cities. The elections will overhaul the country's system of local government by slashing the number of municipalities, from 543 to 284, and creating six 'megacities', each presided over by a single powerful mayor. They can as such be seen as the first real 'post-apartheid' local elections in South Africa and, whatever the outcome, will give a major victory to democracy in the country. Elections have at large been carried through in an orderly way. However, in Northern Cape Province the Independent Electoral Commission is investigating allegations that white farmers were preventing their black workers from voting. In an isolated incident of violence, two people were shot dead and one was injured near a polling station on Johannesburg's East Rand, but police said it was not yet clear whether the incident was politically motivated.
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