Regardless of complaints and objections put forward by other political parties, particularly the smaller parties, the current state and projections indicate clearly that the ANC will still remain in power for the next administration period of five years.
The DA will remain the runner ups with a stronghold in the Western Cape. And the EFF remains in 3rd position and adding one more province where it will hold official opposition party status. The IFP also holds on to the 4th position whilst there is leap jump by the VF Plus from the 7th position up to the 5th, something they haven’t able to achieve for the past 4 elections. The voter percentages of DA and the ANC have both declined whilst the EFF has seen an increase of almost double their previous percentage.
There seem to be a lot of disappointments for smaller parties who confidently joined the ballot paper thinking they’ll survive the hardship of politics. Most of these parties are under 0.1% and mostly falling below 0.05%, an indication of no recognition and less support. This could be as a result of the poor effort the parties have put into their campaigns. The parties were less vocal on the ground and had low advertising on the street poles.
GOOD, ATM and UDM seem to be heading to Parliament with COPE and NFP on the edge of getting itself a seat.
Below is the illustration of the top 5 political parties and their standing.
Eagerly looking forward to again win in Gauteng, ANC is holding on to the lead, but at 49.6%, a drop from the morning lead of 51%. The party might need a coalition to take over the province. EFF seems to have the opposition stronghold in the North West with over 18% in the province. On the other hand the DA seems to be seeing a decline of 4% in the Western Cape.
By the current standings, the ANC looks to be settled at 56.9% in the national vote, 5% lower than their 2014 results.
*Nkoe A Montja is research analyst at Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection
