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African National Congress face key vote as polls commence in South Africa
The African National Congress is facing its toughest election yet. The party’s also been accused of massive corruption and there are issues around some of the leadership. People are saying they want change and that’s what they’re coming out to vote for now.
There are a number of young people who are unhappy with the ANC and again, that issue of change comes to the fore and this is where people may turn out to perhaps rock the boat really and change the governance.
In the last election, about 47 percent of voters turned out and that was almost half of how many voters came out back in 1994. So there really is concern around voter turnout but this time, they are about 28 million people registered to vote and so voter turnout may improve, especially given how unhappy people are with the ANC.
Voting is under a proportional system in which parties and candidates are competing for 400 seats in the National Assembly.
Parties on the national ballot will contest 200 of those seats while the other 200 are divided between the nine regions and contested by parties and independent candidates.
In provincial legislatures, the number of seats is determined on the basis of the size of the population in each of the nine provinces.
For the first time, voters will receive three ballots instead of two. On each ballot, they will have to choose one party or one candidate.
Two ballots will be used to elect the National Assembly, and the third one will be for the election of members of the provincial legislature in each province.
