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Ace Magashule leads an ANC campaign for by-elections.
PHOTO: Kayleen Morgan / News24
- The ANC was the biggest winner in Wednesday’s by-elections, beating five DA districts and other smaller parties.
- However, the district attorney, who lost two wards, claimed victory.
- The EFF came out with nothing.
Independent candidates and the EFF were the biggest losers in Wednesday’s by-elections, with the ANC emerging victorious and taking over the DA’s wing.
The ANC retained 12 wards, lost one, and took five of the smaller and DA parties. The ANC, which has fought against the DA in the Western Cape, took two pavilions from the party in Oudtshoorn municipality.
The district attorney’s votes were divided between independent candidates and his biggest headache, the FF Plus. He lost two rooms and retained six, but did not win any new ones.
Speaking to News24, election analyst Wayne Sussman said that while the ballot papers were full of independent candidates taking votes from the district attorney and the ANC, they all fared poorly.
“The biggest challenge for the ANC in 2021 [in] Local or regional polls are the independent ones, but on the one hand, the independents did very badly. Many independents put their names in their hats and only one of them came close to beating the ANC yesterday. The ANC and the DA did well against the independents, “he said.
The newcomers, the Land Party, also took a room from the ANC in Overstrand Township. ANC dropped from 89% to 36% in the room.
READ | By-elections: all systems fight fierce battles across the country
“The general trend I see is this: the FF + is still a thorn in the prosecutor’s side. They did well in the two by-elections in Benoni and Ekurhuleni. That is something that hangs over the prosecutor’s head. The The prosecutor still has challenges, but the challenges are not as bad as Super Wednesday, so they performed slightly better, “Sussman said.
He added that the EFF had a difficult night. The party failed to win any room.
“There was a district in the Northern Cape where they did well. They got over 33% of the vote, which is a very good performance, and a district in Bushbuck Ridge, but they were not close to winning any districts and they need to start winning pupils. Just as the FF + is gaining pupils over the DA, it is necessary to start seeing the EFF, for its growth momentum, gaining pupils over the ANC, “he said.
However, in a statement, the district attorney claimed victory. DA spokesman Siviwe Gwarube said the by-elections showed the DA resonated with black voters and was making significant progress in the strongholds of the ANC. DA growth in black constituencies increased 135% in 2019, he said.
“In the Western Cape, in the 115th district of the city of Cape Town, support for the DA grew, showing an increase of 12.68 percentage points. As predicted, the smaller Good party has failed to break the ceiling of 5 The reality is that this party cannot and will not bring real hope or real change in this context of local government. The DA also retained Langeberg, “he added.
He also said that the district attorney was delighted with his results in Gauteng, in Ekurhuleni (districts 27, 28).
“Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA-backed independent candidates had no impact on our electoral support.”
‘Very pleased’
At a virtual press conference in which Parliament was reviewed last year, DA leader John Steenhuisen said he was “very satisfied” with the results of Wednesday’s by-elections.
He said the party achieved “massive growth” in Ekurhuleni and the city of Cape Town.
Steenhuisen admitted that there were some “areas of concern”, notably Oudtshoorn, where the party lost two seats to the ANC. He said there were some “government concerns” the party was grappling with.
Referring to low voter turnout, the average turnout was 34.56%, with only 11.72% in Cape Town’s 15th District, Steenhuisen said he suspected the by-elections were affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“A lot of people were nervous about going out.”
When asked about the growth of FF Plus in Ekurhuleni and The Bluff in Durban, Steenhuisen said, “My job is to focus on increasing the DA vote.”
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