South Africa general elections – An overview

The following table includes two parts. The first part shows the outcomes of all parties of the national assembly by shares for each election since 1994. The second part shows the participation of the electorate for each national election since 1994. This part distinguishes between the total amount of people at the age over 18 years and all registered voters. Latter distinction is valid for the voter turnout.

Electoral outcome
Share by party / election	2009	2004	1999	1994
ACDP	0,81%	1,60%	1,43%	0,45%
ANC	65,90%	69,69%	66,35%	62,65%
Cope	7,42%	–	–	–
DA	16,60%	12,37%	9,56%	1,73%
ID	0,92%	1,73%	–	–
IFP	4,55%	6,97%	8,58%	10,54%
NNP	susp.	1,65%	6,87%	20,39%
UDM	0,85%	2,27%	3,42%	–
Sum	97,05%	96,28%	96,21%	95,76%
Participation
Adult people	ca. 30Mio	27 to 30Mio		ca. 27Mio
Registered voters	22.872.870	20.674.926	18.172.751	na
Votes cast	17.680.729	15.612.671	15.977.142	na
Voter turnout all people over 18 years	58,9%	54,8%	59,2%	na
Voter turnout registered voters	77,3%	75,5%	87,9%	86,9%

Source: IEC, EISA and StatsSA.

Public holiday in South Africa

Today, a  public holiday in South Africa, the forth elections take place since the ending of apartheid. More than 23 Mio. people (of approx. 30 Mio. at the age over 18 years) have registered. To register for elections seems to be a barrier for 25 percent of possible voters. Why does political campaiging leaks to motivate these 7 Mio. people? How many people are registered but wont vote? A look at the statistics on voter participation of the past (IEC and EISA) offers a loss of 25 percent for registration and an additional amount which is registered but does not attend the elections. For this year elections can be expected a voter turnout of 70 to 75 percent, which is around 50 percent of total electorate. 50 percent participation is not bad compared to other nations, like in US or Switzerland, but it is not over average. Nethertheless these figures show a trend of decreasing participation. So again, why does political campaigning leaks to motivate 50 percent of the electorate? Does it mean, political campaigning demotivates people? Does politics of the previous legislation(s) demotivate people? Or, does people resign on political future? Are they expecting certain results, which are pre-electoral announced by newspapers and polls, and willing to fulfil these? The elections today assign the parliament and government of the next five years. On the one hand, one single vote of 30 Mio. has an impact of 1 to 30 Mio., which is in mathematical terms like zero impact. On the over hand, voters should keep in mind, that today is the first day of more than 1.800 days with the (not) elected parliament.