VOTE FOR SOUTH AFRICA 2009 VOTE.

 

 

The year is 2009 and South Africans are heading to the polls to mark their ballots and cast their votes in our 4th national and provincial democratic elections. These elections are perhaps the most hotly contested since 1994 and some media outlets have labeled it as a cross roads for South Africa’s political landscape. Most of you may only have seen former South African President Nelson Mandela cast his vote in the many media images making international headlines but the real voters to watch out for are young people.

 

South Africa uses an electoral system based on a system of proportional representation (PR) at National and provincial levels. South Africa has been using the closed list system of Proportional Representation since its first democratic elections in 1994. The South African electoral system is a result of compromises reached during the constitutional negotiations. South Africa as a country has a multitude of opinions and diverse interests which exist, the issue of representation is one that is particularly important.


Political parties have been scrambling to get the youth vote and have logged on to social networking sites such as facebook and Twitter. University campuses have been frequented by politicians. At my University we had Democratic Alliance (DA) leader Hellen Zille, African National Congress (ANC) youth leader Julius Malema and Congress of the People (COPE) Provincial Leader Allan Boesak.  With the last three months of election campaigning voters have been bombarded with messages of what politicians are prepared to do for us but what has been amazing is that most young people have been crucial in getting politicians to talk. Young people have asked honest questions, made informed comments and have vowed to hold politicians to account. Young people are seen as being very unpredictable and they may be the deciding votes in the elections. We are clear about what we want as young people and we are working towards achieving our goals. Young people are using their hard fought for right to participate in the democratic process.


As I am writing this, voter results are trickling in and the ANC (116 000*) is leading the way, the DA (16 000*) in second place and COPE (15 000*) coming in third. The votes recorded here represent only one percent of the national votes captured. No self respected Political Analyst wants to make predictions but going on what I have discussed in my Politics class the ANC will win the National Elections with a 60 % or more majorities. There are wide speculations that COPE, a newcomer taking second place or running closely with the DA.


Final Election results should be in by the weekend and the leader of the current official opposition has made very irresponsible saying that the Independent Electoral Commission is not capable of even running a bath let alone elections. These comments worry me as a young person as this sends out a signal that we are a banana republic. We are a country with institutions capable of managing elections. In my experience after casting my vote this morning the service was efficient, friendly and transparent to my standards as a politics student (just at my voting station). We will wait with baited breath for results to be announced.

 

I expect Jacob Zuma to become the next President of the Republic and I hope that he acts within the frame work provided by the Constitution and most importantly keep the interest of the next generation at the heart of the governance agenda. But I also believe that this election is only the fourth one and we will have many more to enusre that we continue our democratic legacy. As a country we have made great progress since the end of apartheid. We have young people interested in elections and truly pasionate about building South Africa. 

 


*figures as reported on eyewitness news 23/04/09.