BrandsEye, the South African company that accurately predicted Britons would vote to leave the European Union by monitoring conversations on social media, now forecasts that South Africa’s election on Wednesday will usher in an era of coalition politics.
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A significant loss of support for the ruling party, which led South Africa’s decades-long struggle against oppressive white minority rule, would be a blow ahead of the next major test – the 2019 national elections.
Meanwhile the ANC is highly likely to still draw support in many rural areas, particularly in the Easter Cape, KwaZula Natal, Limpopo and Orange Free State provinces, with older black South Africans set to prove their loyalty to the party despite its problems.
More than 61,000 candidates are competing for local government seats.
President Jacob Zuma’s office has urged that the municipal elections remain peaceful, and campaigning in many parts of the country has been calm.
But dire economic data – including an unemployment rate of 27% and a forecast of 0% gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year has put pressure on the ruling party.
“Yes, the ANC managed to pack the Ellis Park Stadium during their final Siyanqoba rally on Sunday, but that can not be translated into the elections because such gatherings are not spontaneous”.
With 26.3 million registered voters due to cast their ballots at 22,612 voting stations countrywide, this election promises to attract one of the highest voter turnout numbers since democracy.
“We need better government”, said Doug Barrow, 72, who voted for the DA at a polling station in the upscale suburb of Inanda.
But the opposition, Democratic Alliance, has much bigger goals.”Not since 1994 has this city stood on the brink of such monumental change”, said the party’s Johannesburg mayoral candidate, Herman Mashaba.
Here is a list of sources where South Africans can view the election results.
The DA’s move has sparked fury among the ANC leadership and supporters.
“If that is the case, the name Zuma will dominate the ANC’s national executive committee meeting after the elections”.
Herein, we assume that Jacob Zuma will step aside from the ANC presidency, and also not attempt a third term as South Africa’s President in the 2019 general elections (the country’s constitution now limits the Presidency to two five-year terms). “And the opposition parties are not without their own flaws and stigmas”. “Zuma doesn’t make decisions alone so the ANC is not Zuma alone, it’s a collective”, he said.
With a quarter of the votes in so far, the ANC held a 50 percent lead, against 34 percent for the Democratic Alliance (DA) and 6 percent for the Economic Freedom Fighters, which is participating in only its second election.
In December, his decision to dismiss the country’s respected finance minister, Nhlanhla Nene, and replace him with a largely unknown and widely denounced Parliamentarian, sent the country’s rand currency to all-time lows against the US dollar and British pound.
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Lauren Tracy, one of the authors of the report, told Al Jazeera that young South Africans were cynical about the political establishment, and had grown increasingly wary of its ability to represent them.
