Geography and voting: the growth of urban opposition in South Africa two decades after democratisation

The results of the 2016 local government elections in South Africa provided a new opportunity to assess voting trends and to explore the synergies of demographics, geography and voting behaviour. Pre-election protests and polls suggested haemorrhaging of support levels for the ruling African Nationa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSouth African geographical journal Vol. 100; no. 2; pp. 141 - 161
Main Author Rule, S. P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Abingdon Routledge 04.05.2018
Taylor & Francis
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
Democratization
Demographics
Demonstrations & protests
Election
Election results
Elections
Geography
Local elections
Local government
Neighborhoods
Opposition
Political opposition
Polls & surveys
Urban
Voter behavior
Voting
Ward
South Africa
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Summary:The results of the 2016 local government elections in South Africa provided a new opportunity to assess voting trends and to explore the synergies of demographics, geography and voting behaviour. Pre-election protests and polls suggested haemorrhaging of support levels for the ruling African National Congress (ANC). Increased support was thus predicted for opposition parties on the political right and left of the ANC, especially for the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Economic Freedom Front, respectively. These predictions were realised when support for the ANC declined from 62 to 54% nationally, and the ANC received less than half of votes cast in five of the country's eight metropolitan municipalities. This paper interrogates the election outcomes in the municipal wards of the two largest metropoles, Johannesburg and Cape Town, to determine dynamics of the neighbourhood level changes in voting patterns.
ISSN:0373-6245
2151-2418
DOI:10.1080/03736245.2017.1339628