Elections in South Africa

South Africa

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Elections in South Africa take place on national, provincial, and local levels. South Africa is a multi-party democracy with the African National Congress in power with a significant majority since 1994. Although South Africa's democracy is rated as flawed in the Democracy Index survey conducted by the Economist, its score for electoral process is the same as that of the United States and Japan.[1] A system of proportional representation, incorporating party lists, is in place which makes it possible for small parties to achieve representation in parliament.

The parliament has two chambers, and elects the president. The National Assembly has 400 members, elected for a five year term. The National Council of Provinces has 90 members, elected for a five year term by the provincial parliaments. The National Assembly and Provincial Councils are elected when General Elections are held.

Members to the local governing councils in the municipalities and mayors are elected in municipal elections.

Contents

History

Early days of the Union

At the time of Unification and admission as a dominion of Great Britain in 1910 until the 1929 elections the franchise structures of the constituent colonies were applied. Subsequently only white men were allowed to vote in three of the provinces while a highly restricted number of black and coloured men where able to vote in the Cape Province. In 1930 white women received political franchise. However by 1939 black men were disenfranchised in the Cape by being placed on a separate voters roll - eventually this representation was removed.

Constitutional Crisis in 1950s

After coming to power in 1948 the National Party engaged in a policy of removing coloured voters in a similar manner to black voters. This policy lead to legal challenges and amounted to a Constitutional Crisis which was stopped by Parliament reconstituting the Senate. During the crisis the Supreme Court asserted its right to test the procedure of law creation by Parliament.

Republic of South Africa

In 1960 a referendum was held to decide whether to become a republic. No changes were made to the franchise with the Republic's emergence in 1961. However with the policy of establishing Bantustans the remaining black representation in the Senate was completely removed.

Tricameral Parliament

After the 1983 referendum, it was decided to create a Tricameral Parliament, giving limited political franchise to the Coloured and Indian population groups.

End of Apartheid

After the 1992 referendum, deciding to end apartheid, universal suffrage was implemented allowing people of all races to take part in the first democratic elections in 1994.

Since 1994 all adult South Africans have in principle possessed the franchise and the right to vote is entrenched in the Constitution, however various logistical challenges still exist as is common with all democracies.

List of elections

General elections

Referendums

Local elections

Election results

2004 general election

Main article: South African general election, 2004

About 56% of eligible voters took part in the election, with the ANC receiving support from about 38% of all eligible voters.[2]

e • d Summary of the 14 April 2004 National Assembly election results[3]
Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− from last
election[note 1]		 +/− from before
this election[note 2]
African National Congress 10,880,915 69.69 +3.34 279 +13 +4
Democratic Alliance[note 3] 1,931,201 12.37 +2.81 50 +12 +4
Inkatha Freedom Party 1,088,664 6.97 −1.61 28 −6 −3
United Democratic Movement 355,717 2.28 −1.14 9 −5 +5
Independent Democrats[note 4] 269.765 1.73 +1.73 7 +7 +6
New National Party 257,842 1.65 −5.22 7 −21 −13
African Christian Democratic Party 250,272 1.65 +0.17 7 +1 0
Freedom Front Plus[note 5] 139,465 0.89 −0.19 4 0 +1
United Christian Democratic Party 117,792 0.75 −0.03 3 0 0
Pan Africanist Congress 113,512 0.73 +0.02 3 0 +1
Minority Front 55,267 0.35 +0.05 2 +1 +1
Azanian People's Organisation 39,116 0.25 +0.08 1 0 0
Christian Democratic Party[note 6] 17,619 0.11 +0.11 0 0 0
National Action[note 4] 15,804 0.10 +0.10 0 0 −1
Peace and Justice Congress[note 4] 15,187 0.10 +0.10 0 0 −1
Socialist Party of Azania 14,853 0.10 +0.04 0 0 0
New Labour Party[note 4] 13,318 0.09 0.09 0 0 0
United Front[note 6] 11,889 0.08 +0.08 0 0 0
Employment Movement for South Africa[note 6] 10,446 0.07 +0.07 0 0 0
The Organisation Party[note 6] 7,531 0.05 +0.05 0 0 0
Keep It Straight and Simple Party[note 6] 6,514 0.04 +0.04 0 0 0
Total 15,612,671 100.00 400
Spoilt votes 251,320

Notes:

  1. ^ Change in seats compared to the composition of the legislature after the election of 2 June 1999.
  2. ^ Change in seats compared to the composition of the legislature after the floor-crossing period that ended on 4 April 2003.
  3. ^ Successor to the Democratic Party.
  4. ^ a b c d Party did not contest the previous election to this legislature, having been created during the floor-crossing period of 2003.
  5. ^ Successor to the Freedom Front and the Afrikaner Eenheidsbeweging.
  6. ^ a b c d e Party did not contest the previous election to this legislature.

2009 general election

Main article: South African general election, 2009
e • d Summary of the 22 April 2009 National Assembly election results[4]
Party Votes % +/− Seats +/− from last
election[note 1]		 +/− from before
this election[note 2]
African National Congress 11,650,748 65.90 −3.80 264 −15 −33
Democratic Alliance 2,945,829 16.66 +4.29 67 +17 +20
Congress of the People[note 3] 1,311,027 7.42 +7.42 30 +30 +30
Inkatha Freedom Party 804,260 4.55 −2.42 18 −10 −5
Independent Democrats 162,915 0.92 −0.81 4 −3 0
United Democratic Movement 149,680 0.85 −1.43 4 −5 −2
Freedom Front Plus 146,796 0.83 −0.06 4 0 0
African Christian Democratic Party 142,658 0.81 −0.80 3 −4 −1
United Christian Democratic Party 66,086 0.37 −0.38 2 −1 −1
Pan Africanist Congress 48,530 0.27 −0.45 1 −2 0
Minority Front 43,474 0.25 −0.11 1 −1 −1
Azanian People's Organisation 38,245 0.22 −0.03 1 0 0
African People's Convention[note 4] 35,867 0.20 +0.20 1 +1 −1
Movement Democratic Party[note 3] 29,747 0.17 +0.17 0 0 0
Al Jama-ah[note 3] 25,947 0.15 +0.15 0 0 0
Christian Democratic Alliance[note 5] 11,638 0.07 −0.13 0 0 −1
National Democratic Convention[note 6] 10,830 0.06 +0.06 0 0 −4
New Vision Party[note 3] 9,296 0.05 +0.05 0 0 0
United Independent Front[note 6] 8,872 0.05 +0.05 0 0 0
Great Kongress of South Africa[note 3] 8,271 0.05 +0.05 0 0 0
South African Democratic Congress[note 3] 6,035 0.03 +0.03 0 0 0
Keep It Straight and Simple 5,440 0.03 −0.01 0 0 0
Pan Africanist Movement[note 3] 5,426 0.03 +0.03 0 0 0
Alliance of Free Democrats[note 6] 5,178 0.03 +0.03 0 0 0
Women Forward[note 3] 5,087 0.03 +0.03 0 0 0
A Party[note 3] 2,847 0.02 +0.02 0 0 0
Total 17,680,729 100.00 400
Spoilt votes 239,237

Notes:

  1. ^ Change in seats compared to the composition of the legislature after the election of 14 April 2004.
  2. ^ Change in seats compared to the composition of the legislature after the second floor-crossing period that ended on 15 September 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Party did not contest the previous election to this legislature.
  4. ^ Party did not contest the previous election to this legislature, having been created during the floor-crossing period of 2007.
  5. ^ Successor to the Christian Democratic Party, the Federation of Democrats and the New Labour Party in this legislature.
  6. ^ a b c Party did not contest the previous election to this legislature, having been created during the floor-crossing period of 2005.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Democracy Index 2008". Archived from the original on 2009-03-24. http://web.archive.org/web/20090324202331/http://a330.g.akamai.net/7/330/25828/20081021185552/graphics.eiu.com/PDF/Democracy%20Index%202008.pdf. Retrieved 2009-02-11. 
  2. ^ McKinley, Dale T. (2004-04-29). "South Africa: A disillusioned democracy". Green Left Weekly. http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2004/580/580p18.htm. Retrieved 2006-09-21. 
  3. ^ "April 14, 2004 General Election Results - Republic of South Africa Totals". Election Resources on the Internet. http://electionresources.org/za/provinces.php?election=2004. Retrieved 23 December 2010. 
  4. ^ "April 22, 2009 General Election Results - Republic of South Africa Totals". Election Resources on the Internet. http://electionresources.org/za/provinces.php?election=2009. Retrieved 24 December 2010. 

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