South Africa’s ruling African National Congress named its candidates for premiers in the nine provinces on Wednesday night, after a national working committee meeting was held in the Mother City. It is the first time that candidates have only been named after the election.
The jostling over the spoils of Cabinet posts in the Western Cape and possible representation for the New National Party in the national Cabinet will begin this week. The NNP on Monday went out of its way to underscore the point that there was no suggestion of any calls for its leader to resign.
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The election in KwaZulu-Natal was a neck-and-neck race between the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress on Thursday. The counting of the votes has been slow in the province due to rigorous auditing of the electronic capturing of votes.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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As expected, the race for control of the South African provinces of the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal remains tight. In the Western Cape, with 23% of the votes counted, the African National Congress was only slightly ahead of the official opposition Democratic Alliance, with figures indicating that a hung legislature could result.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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Former South African president FW de Klerk, who voted at the Sonop Primary school in Paarl on Wednesday morning, said his old party — the New National Party (NNP) — ”might come up with a surprise” in the national election on Wednesday.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille has emerged as the favourite opposition politician in South Africa, according to a Markinor survey. The survey also showed the ANC has the backing of 72,3% of registered voters.
<img src="http://www.mg.co.za/ContentImages/41909/10-X-Logo.gif" align=left>Polls indicate that South Africa’s former ruling party will be lucky to get 15% in the upcoming election — down from about 38% in 1999 — in its stronghold of the Western Cape. But there was no sign of despondency in its ranks when its leader, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, took to meeting voters on the West Coast on Tuesday.
<li><a class=’standardtextsmall’ href="http://www.mg.co.za/Content/l3_fl2.asp?o=40922">Special Report: Elections 2004</a>
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Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille says that the 500 members who allegedly left her party at the weekend had not been members of the party and she intended to take legal action against at least one defector. She was responding to an announcement on Sunday by Charles Golding, who claimed to be from the Welcome Estate branch.
Special Report: Elections 2004
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The battle between the official opposition Democratic Alliance and the fledgling Independent Democrats took on a new election campaign spin with a battle of wills between veteran liberal politician Helen Suzman and ID leader Patricia de Lille.
Suzman versus De Lille
Special Report: Elections 2004
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South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande says the alliance of the Democratic Alliance and the Inkatha Freedom Party represents the most backward elements created by apartheid. ”These two parties represent not only the interests of beneficiaries of apartheid but are reluctantly part of the new order,” he said.
Special Report: Elections 2004