Politics of the Northern Cape

Northern Cape
This article is part of a series on the
politics and government of
the Northern Cape
Politics of South Africa

The politics of the Northern Cape is dominated by the African National Congress (ANC), but their position has not been as strong as in many other provinces of South Africa.

In the election of 1994, no party achieved an absolute majority in the province, with the ANC having a plurality of 49% of the votes and 15 seats. The National Party had 40% of the votes and 12 seats, the right wing Freedom Front 2 seats and the liberal Democratic Party 1 seat. However, the ANC was in a Government of National Unity with the NP at the national level, and attained the premiership by virtue of its plurality in the Assembly. Manne Dipico of the ANC became the first Premier of the Northern Cape.

With the decline of the National Party, the ANC increased its voter share in later elections and has remained firmly in charge of the province. Dipuo Peters replaced Dipico as Premier in 2004. The official opposition in the Northern Cape after the 2004 elections was the Democratic Alliance (DA), which received 11% of the vote in the provincial ballot. The opposition's hopes of unseating the ANC has not had any success, even with the Congress of the People helping to split the vote in the election of 22 April 2009. Hazel Jenkins became Premier following the election, and COPE became the official opposition.

The 2014 election saw the ANC returned to power once again with an increased mandate, while DA once again became official opposition, following the collapse of COPE.

The ANC enjoys the greatest support in the densely populated and Tswana dominated northern districts, but has faced stronger challenges in the more thinly populated Afrikaans speaking Karoo areas adjoining the DA dominated Western Cape. They currently govern 23 of the 27 local municipalities in the Northern Cape.

Election results

 
Party Votes % +/− Seats +/−
African National Congress 272,053 64.40 Increase 3.65 20 Increase 1
Democratic Alliance 100,916 23.89 [lower-alpha 1]Increase 6.38 7 [lower-alpha 1]Increase 1
Economic Freedom Fighters 20,951 4.96 New 2 New
Congress of the People 15,218 3.60 Decrease 13.07 1 Decrease 4
Freedom Front Plus 4,600 1.09 Decrease 0.16 0 Steady 0
African Christian Democratic Party 2,421 0.57 Decrease 0.43 0 Steady 0
United Christian Democratic Party 1,542 0.37 Decrease 0.84 0 Steady 0
African People's Convention 1,191 0.28 Decrease 0.06 0 Steady 0
Azanian People's Organisation 1,062 0.25 Decrease 0.35 0 Steady 0
Patriotic Alliance 584 0.14 New 0 New
Independent Civic Organisation 499 0.12 New 0 New
Pan Africanist Congress 460 0.11 Decrease 0.11 0 Steady 0
United Democratic Movement 366 0.09 Decrease 0.06 0 Steady 0
Inkatha Freedom Party 239 0.06 Decrease 0.13 0 Steady 0
First Nation Liberation Alliance 194 0.05 New 0 New
National Freedom Party 139 0.03 New 0 New
Total 422,431 100.00 30
Valid votes 422,431 98.58
Spoilt votes 6,106 1.42
Total votes cast 428,537 100.00
Registered voters/turnout 601,080 71.29
Source: IEC

Notes:

  1. 1 2 Compared to the combined performance of the Democratic Alliance and the Independent Democrats in 2009.

References

    See also

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