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SAFRICA-VOTE-POLITICS
South Africa waits for results after polls
PRETORIA, May 9, 2019 (BSS/AFP) – South Africans were awaiting the first
results on Thursday of closely-watched polls which will be the first measure
of whether President Cyril Ramaphosa can reinvigorate support for the ruling
ANC.
Ramaphosa, 66, took over last year after the African National Congress
(ANC) forced then-president Jacob Zuma to resign after nine years dominated
by corruption allegations and economic problems.
Preliminary results of Wednesday’s poll will emerge throughout the day,
with an official winner declared on Saturday.
The party that wins the most seats in parliament selects the country’s
president, who will be sworn in on May 25.
“The outcome of this election will be a major boost for investors… and
investor confidence, it’s about confidence and about the future,” Ramaphosa
said after voting on Wednesday.
“We apologise for our mistakes.”
Support for the ANC has fallen in every election since 2004 with the party
taking 54 percent in 2016 municipal elections, compared with 62 percent in
2014’s national vote.
Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) were swept to power
with a landslide in the country’s first multi-racial polls that marked the
end of apartheid in 1994.
Most opinion surveys suggest the ANC will secure nearly 60 percent of
Wednesday’s vote, thanks to Ramaphosa’s appeal and a fractured opposition.
Dirk Coetzee, a professor at UNISA’s political science department, said
“the higher the percentage for the ANC, the more it will give him (Ramaphosa)
bargaining power”.
“If Ramaphosa gets below 50 percent he will be very vulnerable” to
challenges from rivals within the ANC, he added.
– ‘The poor are getting poorer’ –
The ANC has been confronted by deepening public anger over its failure to
tackle poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa.
“We have given them 25 years but the poor are getting poorer and the rich
richer,” said voter Anmareth Preece, 28, a teacher from Coligny in North West
province. “We need a government that governs for the people, not for
themselves.”
The economy grew just 0.8 percent in 2018 and unemployment hovers around
27 percent — soaring to over 50 percent among young people.
Of the 47 opposition parties in the race, only the main opposition
centrist Democratic Alliance (DA) and the radical-left Economic Freedom
Fighters (EFF) are major players.
The DA is hoping to shed its image as a white, middle-class party.
Its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane, is contesting his maiden general
election since taking the helm in 2015, and is expected to make modest gains
on the DA’s 2014 vote share of 22 percent.
The EFF, founded six years ago by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema,
is predicted to make major gains, growing from 6.3 percent to a forecast 11
percent.
“The ANC has taken people for granted. There is some arrogance which has
crept in,” said voter Mandla Booi, 45, in Port Elizabeth on the south coast.
The EFF, which appeals mainly to young voters and the poor, has campaigned
on a policy of seizing land from white owners to give to blacks.
Enforced land redistribution is also ANC policy — alarming some
investors.
About 26.8 million voters were registered to cast their ballots at 22,925
polling stations countrywide.
BSS/AFP/MSY/1001 hrs