Holomisa steals a march as peer parties slip in poll
THE DA may be the biggest gainer in the 2014 elections, growing to four million votes, but Bantu Holomisa’s United Democratic Movement is the only other smaller party — barring the new entrants — to have shown some growth.
The UDM got 184 000 votes (1% of total votes), an increase from the 149 000 (0.85%) of 2009.
The party has been in decline since 1999, when it received 540 000 votes (3.42%).
The biggest loser this year was the Congress of the People. It fell from 1.3 million votes (7.42%) in 2009 to just 123 000 votes (0.67%).
The leadership squabbles between Mosiuoa Lekota and Mbhazima Shilowa seem to have cost it dearly.
The DA’s leadership could not contain their excitement about reaching the four million votes mark (22.23%).
This means its support has grown by 1.1 million votes since 2009.
DA leader Helen Zille, at the Independent Electoral Commission’s national results centre in Pretoria on Friday afternoon, held out four fingers to signify her party’s achievement.
The DA’s 22.23% is still a long way from unseating the ANC, which got 11.4 million votes (62.15%).
However, the ruling party should be worried about its declining support — although it is marginal.
The ANC lost more than 200 000 votes in these elections when 11.4 million voted for President Jacob Zuma’s party compared with the 11.6 million (65.9%) who turned out for it in 2009.
This means that even with almost 800 000 more people (18.4 million) having cast their votes this year than in 2009 (17.6 million), the ANC still shed some votes.
Another party that has continued to decline is Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s Inkatha Freedom Party. It lost half the votes it got in 2009 and managed to attract only 441 000 votes (2.4%) in 2014.
Among the new entrants, Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters got the biggest share of the votes — 1.1 million supporters, or 6.35% of the total votes.
The IFP’s breakaway faction, the National Freedom Party, led by Zanele Magwaza-Msibi, got 288 742 votes (1.57%).
Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang managed only 52 350 votes (0.28%).
Each party will require about 46 000 votes for a seat in the National Assembly.
However, some badly performing parties below the 46 000 threshold may still benefit from the seats that are divided proportionally among the political parties.