ANC set for near two-thirds victory despite Nkandla report

JOHANNESBURG – The African National Congress (ANC) is on course to win nearly a two-thirds majority in May 7 elections, a poll showed on Sunday, confounding analysts who had predicted a fall in support for South Africa’s ruling party 20 years after the end of apartheid, this is according to a report by Independent Online (IOL).

Based on a poll published in the Sunday Times newspaper, the ANC was likely to win 65.5 percent of the vote, only a shade lower than the 65.9 percent it won at the last national elections in 2009.

According to IOL, “The survey was conducted on April 4, after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela – South Africa’s top anti-corruption watchdog – published a damning report into a $21 million state-funded security upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s private home.”

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s main opposition party which already governs the Western Cape, was on track to build its national support from 16.6 percent in 2009 to 23.1 percent this year.

The poll did not indicate how parties were expected to perform in provinces. Recently a poll showed the ANC’s support slide below the 50 percent majority for the first time in 20 years.

While there is a lot of noise about newcomers, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a radical leftist party founded last year by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, the party is expected to get 4 percent of the vote nationally.

IOL also reported, “Analysts had also expected the so-called ‘Born Frees’ – young South Africans with no first-hand experience of white-minority rule – to withhold their support for the ANC, which still uses its defeat of apartheid as its main draw card.

“However, Election Commission figures show that only one in three voters aged 18-19 has registered to vote.”

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