Spotlight falls on Gauteng metros ahead of elections

Gauteng is likely to take the centre stage in Monday’s election as South Africa’s smallest province registered the largest number of voters and Johannesburg being the most tightly contested of all municipalities.

Deducing from statistics revealed by the electoral commission on Tuesday, a political party that appealed to the younger generation had a better chance to do well on Monday.

This as the under 50 year olds formed more than 60% of the registered voters.

The figures, announced by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo at the IEC Results Operation Centre yesterday, pointed to youth likely to play a crucial role in the outcomes of Monday’s municipal polls.

It also showed Gauteng had become the country’s electoral battleground. At 23.64% Gauteng, together with KwaZulu-Natal at 20.79% and Eastern Cape which was 12.42% grabbed the largest chunk of the 26.2 million South Africans registered voters.

It’s believed any political party that performed well in the three provinces had a better chance to dominate the results.

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Mamabolo said the City of Joburg is the most contested municipal council in the country with 56 political parties on the proportional representation ballot. Joburg is where the DA-led coalition ended more than a decade of ANC dominance to usher in a coalition rule formed with smaller parties.

The ANC had since returned to take over the metro following a sudden resignation by its former mayor Herman Mashaba after a fallout among DA politicians.

IEC chair Glen Mashinini said the results would be announced on 4 November.

The youth took up more than 40% of the total on the voters roll. The age group 30 to 39 year olds formed 25.79% of voters and 20 to 29 year olds made up 16.73%.

When this constituency was added to the next age group of 40 to 49 year olds (21.63%), it appeared the under-50s would determine the winner overall.

The polls are the most spoken about, only likely surpassed by the 1994 first democratic elections in terms of magnitude and impact.

– ericn@citizen.co.za