THE Electoral Commission of South Africa has released the results of the by-elections, which saw the Democratic Alliance (DA) losing nine wards and winning only two new wards.
The liberal party attributed its loss to the ‘identity politics’, a worldwide phenomenon that has also impacted the South African landscape for years.
The party’s leader, John Steenhuisen, said results of the Wednesday’s by-elections brought to light challenges in the run-up to next year’s Local Government Elections, which the DA intends to tackle head-on.
“The debacle of Schweizer-Reneke continues to haunt the DA in the North West Province, and the months of conflict between the DA and Patricia de Lille, which gave rise to the party known as GOOD, has eaten into our support base in certain Western Cape wards,” said Steenhuisen.
“The DA has learnt many lessons of its poor handling of these events, and it will take time for us to rebuild trust with the voters. However, we are very pleased that we retained the majority of our wards, showed growth in some of them and even won two new wards in a period when we are busy consolidating and stabilizing internal systems and processes. We are in for the politics of the long haul. There are no short cuts. These only lead to set-backs. The DA is on the road again.”
The African National Congress (ANC) emerged victorious in South Africa’s hotly contested by-elections, despite poor service delivery and political infighting in many municipalities and metros such as the City of Joburg, Tshwane and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
The party won 70 of the 95 wards that were up for grabs, five more wards than those it won in 2016 before the vacancies that occasioned the by-elections.
ANC head of elections, Fikile Mbalula, said the conducted a people-led ad centred approach on candidate selection and campaign that was consistent with “our renewal process”.
He added that the outcome of the by-elections, on the eve of the 2021 Local Government Elections, was an important yardstick for how the party will perform.
“This ensured humility, process integrity and a people centred campaign. The growth of the ANC 65 wards in 2016 to 70 of the 95 wards contested in these by-elections is a humbling outcome that we dare not take for granted,” said Mbalula.
At a media briefing on Thursday, the commission said the elections proceeded smoothly and peacefully.
The by-elections were contested by 40 political parties, with a total of 444 candidates certified as contestants.
This included 19 independent candidates.
Of the candidates, 305 (69%) were male and 139 (31%) were females.
Announcing the results in Tshwane, IEC Vice chairperson, Janet Love, said the Electoral Commission is pleased with the successful holding of the by-elections, which were “overwhelmingly calm, peaceful and smooth”.
“These elections were extraordinary in that they were the first to be held in South Africa under Covid-19 conditions and were the largest number of by-elections held on a single day in our history,” she said.
Love said the commission is encouraged by the turnout of voters, which was within the range for by-elections held since the 2016 Municipal Elections.
According to Love, the average turnout was 37.83%, compared to an average of 38.73% for by-elections over the past four years.
“The highest turnout recorded yesterday was 75.29%, which was recorded in ward 4 of the Port St Johns municipality in the Eastern Cape.
“Given the fact these were the first elections conducted during Covid-19, and that Election Day was a normal working day, the inclement weather in many parts of the country, especially in KwaZulu-Natal — the success of the elections bodes well for the upcoming Municipal Elections, scheduled for 2021,” Love said.
According to the commission, a total of 23 008 individuals (3.7%) applied and were approved to cast special votes. Of these, 12 218 were via home visits and 10 790 were cast at voting stations.
NATIONAL RESULTS OVERVIEW|
The results by party of the 95 wards contested are as follows:
- African National Congress: retained 64 wards; lost two wards and won six new wards.
- Democratic Alliance: retained 14 wards; lost nine wards and won two new wards.
- Inkatha Freedom Party: retained four wards and won one new ward.
- Patriotic Alliance: won one new ward.
- Good Party: won one new ward.
- Al Jama-Ah: won one new ward.
- Vryheidsfront Plus: won one new ward.
- National Freedom Party: lost one ward.
- United Front of Civics Party: lost one ward.
(SOURCE: INSIDE POLITICS)
