WATCH: Elections are not ‘decided on social media’, Shivambu admits

In a video posted by a journalist on Twitter, EFF deputy president is asked why his party has been “winning elections on Twitter during the campaign” when this hasn’t appeared to translate into similar results in the actual elections.

“You must first ask yourself how many South African voters are on social media,” Shivambu says.

He added that while “social media is growing” in South Africa, it is “not a decisive factor” when it comes to elections.

“Nowhere in the world are elections decided on social media,” he said.

While the party is the third biggest in South Africa, their support appears to be elevated on social media.

READ MORE: EFF supporters show their love with #EFFRedFriday

A “social media scorecard” released by IOL showed EFF leader Julius Malema to have the biggest social media presence out of any of the top three party’s leaders, to have the most followers of any party on Twitter, and to have had the largest growth on Twitter since 2014.

They were also found to have to the most social media followers as a whole (a total derived from combining the following of the party’s leaders and the social media pages of the parties themselves).

The EFF is the party that has grown the most in the 2019 elections, sitting at above 10% at the time of publication of this piece.

They also look set to become the official opposition in Limpopo, North West, and Mpumalanga. In the latter case, they are likely to take over from the DA, in what appears to be a sharp increase in their support base as well as a significant reduction of the DA’s.

However, their results fall short of the party’s own predictions, with EFF leader saying early on Thursday that the party is seeking a “decisive majority” and won’t go into coalitions with any other political party.

https://twitter.com/Mshengu_1/status/1126654990158913537

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