Communists to contest poll under own banner
All eyes are fixed on the Free State municipality of Metsimaholo, where by-elections for each of the 21 wards and 21 proportional representation seats comprising the council will take place tomorrow.
Not only is it expected to be a closely contested election but history will also be made with the SACP contesting an election under its own banner for the first time since democracy instead of supporting ANC candidates.
Metsimaholo comprises of northern Free State towns of Sasolburg, Deneysville and Oranjeville, the townships of Zamdela (which has 49% of the total voters) and Refengkgotso. About 82% of the voters are black, 16% white and the remaining two percent are coloured or Indian.
Tomorrow’s by-election is the biggest test of all political parties contesting as the results would be used to measure the political strength of each party for 2019 general elections.
The by-election is happening because after last year’s local government election there was no outright winner and the parties could not form a functioning coalition.
The ANC then won 19 seats, the DA 12, the EFF eight, the Metsimaholo Community Association (MCA) two and the Freedom Front Plus one seat.
After the election, all opposition parties ganged up against the ANC, with the MCA providing the mayor and the DA the speaker. The council, however, was wracked by infighting and was subsequently dissolved. There will be 15 parties contesting the election tomorrow including the ACDP, ANC, Cope, DA, EFF, PAC, SACP and UDM.
ANC sources claimed they had run a good campaign but were unsure of the outcome because they believed the SACP and localised candidates would eat into their support. The ANC national leadership was in Metsimaholo on Friday campaigning hard, while DA sources claimed a solid campaign and believed the ANC would not get more than 50% of the votes.
DA leader Mmusi Maimane campaigned in Zamdela yesterday.
The EFF leadership had been camping out in Metsimaholo for weeks now and were hoping for a strong showing.
The Freedom Front Plus was also confident. The by-elections results are expected on Thursday morning.