Local elections in South Africa 2016
second votes combined)
The local elections in South Africa 2016 ( English 2016 Municipal Elections , Local Government Election 2016 ) took place on August 3rd. The members of the local and regional representatives in the South African districts, metropolitan communities and municipalities were newly elected. The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) was responsible for running the elections . It was the fifth local election after the constitution passed in 1996.
The African National Congress (ANC) had to defend a nationwide absolute majority as well as the absolute majorities in all metropolitan areas except Cape Town , where the Democratic Alliance (DA) had won an absolute majority. For the first time, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), who are the third strongest force in the National Assembly , competed in local elections.
Local elections
Starting position
Elections take place nationwide on the same day every five years. The elected bodies ( Councils ) choose the mayor ( Mayor ). If a directly elected candidate is eliminated, a by-election takes place .
In 2011 - based on second votes at community level - the ANC received around 62.9% nationwide, the DA 24.1%, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) 3.6%, National Freedom Party (NFP) 2.4%, Congress of the People (COPE) 2.2%, United Democratic Movement (UDM) 0.6%, African Christian Democratic Party 0.6% and Vryheidsfront plus 0.4%. The remaining votes were split between numerous smaller parties. 13.66 million voters had voted; the turnout was thus 57.6%. At the district level - excluding the metropolitan communities - the ANC received 69.4% and the DA 15.3% of a total of around 7.88 million valid votes.
President Jacob Zuma announced the election date on April 6, 2016.
At the same time as the elections, a community reform took place in parts of South Africa. 90 communities were affected, among other things because they were merged or divided.
The topics of the election campaign were the financial management of the municipal administrations, public service delivery , corruption , the persistent drought , local public transport, the housing market and job opportunities for young people, but also a possible settlement with the politics of President Zuma, locally as well Protest against the community reform.
The ANC wanted the majority of the council seats in Cape Town, while the DA wanted to win the council majority in Tshwane (with the capital Pretoria ), Johannesburg , Nelson Mandela Bay (with Port Elizabeth ) and Tlokwe (with the city of Potchefstroom ) in addition to the council majority in Cape Town . The EFF stated that they wanted to win the elections in order to take over the government of South Africa in 2019.
In mid-June there were riots with several dead in Tshwane after it became known that the ANC's Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa was not allowed to run again but was replaced by a former minister.
Eligible parties
In addition to almost all parties represented in the National Assembly, numerous smaller or local parties were allowed. A total of 204 parties were admitted. The National Freedom Party is represented in the National Assembly, but was excluded due to a lack of payments. 63,654 candidates ran for the 9,301 mandates.
Registration
Voters had to register before the election. The last date was April 10, 2016. You had to be at least 18 years old to be able to vote . Only South African citizens were allowed to vote. Around 26.3 million South Africans were registered, around 77 percent of those eligible to vote. They were able to cast their votes in one of the around 22,600 polling stations .
procedure
Each voter had two votes at the community level, one for a direct candidate and a second vote for a party list. Half of the mandates was after the majority vote of the strongest candidates of the constituency ( was awarded), but the distribution of seats was based on the proportional representation or by proportional representation on the total number of votes in the electoral area and the counting process according largest remainder method . Overhang mandates were possible. There was no threshold clause . District residents also had a vote in the election of the District Council .
The polling stations closed as scheduled at 7 p.m. local time. The turnout was high; there were few incidents.
Result
14,910,334 valid second votes were counted, which corresponds to around 57 percent of the registered voters. The ANC received 54.5% of the second vote nationwide, the DA 27.0%. The third strongest force was the EFF with 8.2%, followed by IFP with 4.3%, African Independent Congress (AIC) with 1.0%, Vryheidsfront Plus with 0.8% and UDM with 0.6%. All other parties stayed below 0.5%.
The ANC was the strongest force in 176 parishes (including metropolitan parishes), the DA in 24 parishes, including Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay, and Tshwane, the IFP in seven parishes, and the Independent Civic Organization of South Africa (ICOSA) in the Kannaland parish . In addition to the metropolitan communities of Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane, the ANC lost an absolute majority of the mandates in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni .
consequences
The local councils have 14 days to a speaker ( Speaker to choose), the election of the Mayor has initiated.
The EFF decided not to form coalitions in municipalities without an absolute majority of a party, but to tactically support the DA in order to combat the problem of poor service provision, which is being blamed on the ANC. As a result, several were Mayors of the DA chosen as Solly Msimanga in Tshwane and Athol Trollip in Nelson Mandela Bay.
background
The South African local electoral system was largely shaped by the German Federal Council in the mid-1990s . In doing so, emphasis was placed on anchoring the local electoral system in the South African constitution.
See also
Web links
- IEC website on the elections in 2016 (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Information on the 2016 elections from the IEC , accessed on June 10, 2016
- ↑ a b Local government elections: South Africa's big issue poll. dailymaverick.co.za, March 9, 2016, accessed June 13, 2016
- ^ Election results on the IEC website (PDF), accessed on August 1, 2016
- ↑ a b Local government elections date announced. enca.com from April 6, 2016 (English), accessed on June 1, 2016
- ^ SA municipal boundaries changed ahead of 2016 elections. businesstech.co.za from August 28, 2015 (English), accessed June 10, 2016
- ↑ More of the same for ANC in the Western Cape with Fransman at the helm. rdm.co.za of July 10, 2015 (English), accessed June 10, 2016
- ↑ DA has the Big Five metros in its sights. Mail & Guardian of August 27, 2015 (English), accessed June 10, 2016
- ^ EFF aims for total takeover in local elections. news24.com of February 7, 2016 (English), accessed June 10, 2016
- ^ Riots hit South African capital over mayoral candidate. ( Memento from June 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) abcnews.go.com from June 21, 2016 (English)
- ↑ a b c Report at sanews.gov.za ( Memento from July 31, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) from July 31, 2016 (English)
- ↑ NFP to approach ConCourt to fight disqualification from elections. news24.com from July 6, 2016 (English), accessed on July 26, 2016
- ^ A practical test for South Africa's ruling party in local elections . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . August 3, 2016, ISSN 0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed August 3, 2016]).
- ^ Election day in South Africa: how it unfolded. businesstech.co.za from August 3, 2016 (English), accessed August 3, 2016
- ↑ Nationwide election results at elections.org.za (English; PDF), accessed on August 8, 2016
- ↑ Elections 2016: IEC announces final results. m.ewn.co.za from August 6, 2016, accessed August 8, 2016
- ↑ Two weeks until municipal take off. News24.com from August 7, 2016 (English), accessed on August 16, 2016
- ↑ News from bbc.com of August 18, 2016 (English; video), accessed on August 20, 2016
- ↑ Leslie Seidle, David C. Doherty: Reforming parliamentary democracy. McGill-Queen's Press, Montreal 2003, ISBN 0773525076 , pp. 209f. Excerpts from books.google.de