As election results continue to trickle in, early indicators suggest this year’s local government elections might have seen a record low voter turnout.
On Monday, millions of South Africans went to the polls to cast their votes. However, the number of those who turned up was a fraction of those who had registered to vote.
According to a Bloomberg report, less than half of the 26.2-million registered voters showed up at the polls this year.
In the 2016 local government elections, the voter turnout nationally was 58%.
With 37% of the votes counted at the time of publishing this article, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research predicted the ANC will achieve 46.6% of the vote, down from the 54.5% it achieved in the 2016 municipal elections.
This is could be ANC’s lowest support ever, compared to 62.9% in 2011 and 55.7% in 2019.
The DA is projected to secure 24.8% from 27% five years ago, while the EFF is projected to win 8.2%.
ActionSA is projected to get 1% and Freedom Front Plus could secure 3.5% of votes.
