S.African Elections: Jewish DA holds on to the Western Cape, rising well above 50% vote – with PA in third pla ce

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With 70% of Western Cape votes captured and counted, the governing Democratic Alliance has crossed the 50% majority and is set to secure a fourth straight victory. But who joins them in opposition benches is another fight.

Alan Winde is set for another term as Western Cape premier, as by Friday 31 May, his party the Democratic Alliance has reached a majority in the province.

Speaking to Daily Maverick on Friday, DA Western Cape leader Tertuis Simmers said the party was “humbled by the massive response from the electorate across the Western Cape”.

By 10:59 am on Friday, 1,089 of 1,572 voting districts had been completed in the province. So far, the party has a 54.63% majority — with key districts such as Khayelitsha and Mitchell’s Plain to be captured.

A Flourish chart

Simmers described the campaign as “interesting” with just under 29% of the votes still to come in. The party has already reached a majority but now Simmers said the next goal was to surpass the 2019 results — which stood at 55.45%.

At various points during the campaign trail, it was suggested the DA would lose its majority in the province, due to several issues including the party’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war and the rise of the Patriotic Alliance.

Commenting on this, Simmers said, “The opposition parties in this province sought very creative and innovative ways to distort our delivery record over the last 15 years,” and resorted to “racial basis” during the campaign trail.

“We even saw a bit of faith-based or religion-based, campaigning seeping through and we had to contend with the Gaza/Israel matter, which some of the position parties ought to make the main theme for quite a lengthy part of their campaign,” he said.

However, Simmers said at the end of the day, the DA went on the campaign trail, did research and “we fully understood that what the real issues are for all of the citizens in the Western Cape, not just one ethnic group or one or one cultural group or one religious group, but which something or issues which is fed through all of the communities”. He said the party took a constructive and positive approach.

“We came with solutions, we could portray a government already in action, changing people’s lives, outlining what we will do for the next five years,” said the provincial leader.

A member of the Patriotic Alliance political party looks at an electronic board where results of the SA national election are displayed at the Western Cape Independent Electoral Commission Results Operating Centre, in Cape Town, South Africa. 30 May 2024. (Photo: Reuters/Esa Alexander)

Race for next places
In the 2019 general elections, the provincial opposition parties in the legislature were the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Good, African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and Al Jama-ah.

During the counting and capturing, the ANC is still in second place with 18.83% of the vote. Yesterday, ANC provincial spokesperson Muhammad Khalid Sayed told Daily Maverick it was too early to confirm results, especially in key places such as Khayelitsha, one of the ANC’s traditional support bases in the Cape metro.

The Patriotic Alliance — who have been in a back and forth tit-for-tat with the DA throughout the campaign — is currently placed third.

The EFF is currently ranked fourth with 4.49%, followed by the National Coloured Congress (NCC) at 2.74% in fifth. The FF+ is next with 1.64%.

Al Jama-ah is ranked seventh at 1.42%, with the ACDP and Good trailing behind them.

With these current results, the provincial legislature is going to be shaken up by the appearance of both the PA and the NCC.

“But I must say I’m actually looking forward to the seventh term,” said Simmers, who added, “I think it will be the most diverse group of political parties within the chambers”.

He did caution about some of the parties who were campaigning along race or ethnic-based politics. “The reality is that’s not the way that governance works… you must adapt and you must implement policies for all the people,” said Simmers, who added: “and it’s either you are a constructive opposition party which some of them will struggle with”. DM

Source: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2024-05-31-da-set-to-retain-western-cape-rising-above-50-vote-with-pa-in-third-place/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=first_thing

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