/ 9 May 2014

Eastern Cape: ANC ticks up despite PE conflict

In Nelson Mandela Bay
In Nelson Mandela Bay

Internal party strife in Nelson Mandela Bay notwithstanding, the ANC crossed the 70% mark in the Eastern Cape.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) increased its share of the vote in the Eastern Cape by almost half again between 2009 and 2014, but in a pattern established by other provinces in which vote counting had been completed, its gains came not at the expense of the ANC, but of the Congress of the People (Cope).

The ANC increased its portion of the provincial vote to 70.1% compared to its 68.8% in the previous general election.

Cope, which had easily made it into second place in 2009, was beaten by the ANC, the DA, the United Democratic Movement (with an unusual third place) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (somewhat under its national average at 3.5%). But the once influential Cope did manage to beat the African Independent Congress (AIC), thought to owe many of its ballots to voters confusing it with the ANC, by 9 343 votes.

In Nelson Mandela Bay, the Port Elizabeth metro, the ANC’s share of the provincial vote came in below a majority, at 48.8%. Should future government elections mirror that result, a coalition could conceivably wrest control of the metro from the ANC – and gain the right to say it “owns” Nelson Mandela – but that coalition would have to include around a dozen wildly disparate parties.

The ruling party performed better in other urban areas, claiming 67% of the provincial vote in the East London area and 56.6% in the Mthatha area.