POLL | Are you surprised by the voter turnout at this year’s elections?

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.