Remarkable recovery by ruling party – survey

As the national elections in May draw nearer, it seems most South Africans are unsure which political party to vote for.

According to the latest Ipsos six-monthly “Pulse of the People” study, conducted at the end of 2018, the ruling ANC party is currently sitting at 61% followed by the DA (14%), EFF (9%) and IFP (2%).

Global market research firm Ipsos conducted the study by ask- ing a randomly selected sample of registered voters which party they would vote for in a national election if the election were to happen the next day.

Respondents are given the opportunity to fill in their own choices on an electronic voting paper, imitating a secret vote. Some respondents made it clear that none of the current political parties appealed to them.

This gives political parties an opportunity to influence voters ahead of the elections.

Ipsos has warned that these results are not a prediction of the outcome of the election, but merely a snapshot of voter opinion at the time of fieldwork.

The fieldwork for the study was conducted from October 23 to the December 4. A total of 3 571 South Africans, 15 years and older, were interviewed.

They were randomly selected and interviewed face-to-face in their homes and in their home language. Interviews were conducted all over the country, from metropolitan areas to deep rural areas.

The participants were asked which political parties they trusted the most and which the least.

Significantly, it seems the ANC has recovered in the past year following an all-time low during former President Zuma’s tenure.

At the end of the Zuma years, trust in the ANC was very low, but the party has recovered quite significantly in the last year.

The trust indices for both the DA and the EFF are still in negative terrain, and both parties underperformed in building trust among the electorate in 2018.