General elections were held in South Africa on 7 May 2014, to elect a new National Assembly and new provincial legislatures in each province. It was the fifth election held in South Africa under conditions of universal adult suffrage since the end of the apartheid era in 1994, and also the first held since the death of Nelson Mandela. It was also the first time that South African expatriates were allowed to vote in a South African national election.
The National Assembly election was won by the African National Congress (ANC), but with a reduced majority of 62.1%, down from 65.9% in the 2009 election. The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) increased its share of the vote from 16.7% to 22.2%, while the newly formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) obtained 6.4% of the vote.
Eight of the nine provincial legislatures were won by the ANC. The EFF obtained over 10% of the vote in Gauteng, Limpopo and North West, and beat the DA to second place in the last two. In the other six provinces won by the ANC, the DA obtained second place. This included KwaZulu-Natal, where the DA for the first time beat the Inkatha Freedom Party to second place. In the Western Cape, the only province not won by the ANC, the DA increased its majority from 51.5% to 59.4%.
Electoral system.
South Africa has a parliamentary system of government; the National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach. Two hundred members are elected from national party lists; the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa was chosen by the National Assembly after the election.
The provincial legislatures, which vary in size from 30 to 80 members, are also elected by proportional representation with closed lists. The premiers of each province will be chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) consists of 90 members, ten elected by each provincial legislature. The NCOP members will be elected by the provincial legislatures in proportion to the party makeup of the legislatures.
Changes to electoral legislation.
On 26 November 2013 the Electoral Amendment Act, 2013, came into force. It allows South African citizens resident outside South Africa to register and vote in the election of the National Assembly.
A new regulation added in 2013 that was enforced for the first time on 7 May 2014 is the prohibition of photographing marked ballot papers, which aims to inhibit voter intimidation.
Political parties.
The governing African National Congress (ANC), supported by its Tripartite Alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), have held a majority of the seats in the National Assembly since 1994. They were re-elected with increasing majorities in 1999 and 2004, and with a slight fall in its majority from 69% to 65.9% in 2009. The ANC is led by Jacob Zuma. In 2012, Zuma was re-elected to a second five-year term as President of the African National Congress, beating his only rival and deputy, Kgalema Motlanthe, by a wide margin. Cyril Ramaphosa was elected as Deputy President of the ANC, succeeding Motlanthe who had declined a second term after losing to Zuma.
The official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) received 16.7% of the vote in 2009, up from 12.4% in 2004. The DA is led by Helen Zille, who was re-elected unopposed as Leader of the Democratic Alliance at the party's Federal Congress in Gauteng in 2012, while Lindiwe Mazibuko continued as Leader of the Opposition in Parliament. At provincial level, the DA has been in power in the Western Cape province since 2009, and came to power in several Western Cape municipalities in the 2011 municipal election. Traditionally, the DA was seen as a party rallying against apartheid laws, especially in the 1980s. However, one of its larger following bases are the whites in the south, especially after it absorbed the New National Party in 2001 (although NNP was disbanded in 2004).
Congress of the People (COPE), is led by Mosiuoa Lekota, although the leadership is disputed by Mbhazima Shilowa who continues to battle for recognition in the High Court. The party has been riven by infighting, causing it to lose much of its support and resulting in the formation of a splinter group, the United Congress. COPE won three seats in the National Assembly in the 2014 elections.
Mangosuthu Buthelezi remains leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) despite a challenge by former IFP chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, who formed the National Freedom Party (NFP) after her feud with Buthelezi. The NFP and IFP split the vote in the Zulu-dominated KwaZulu-Natal province in the previous local government elections, each getting an even share of the vote, while the ANC continued to dominate the former IFP stronghold.
The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) announced on 17 March that a record number of 33 parties had registered candidates for the national parliamentary election. In the provincial legislature elections the number of parties registering candidates, including four parties which had not yet paid the required deposits subject to a 24 March deadline, were:
The electoral code of conduct was signed in Midrand, Gauteng on 19 March 2014. At the signing event, a draw was held in which the Freedom Front Plus won the right to appear at the top of the ballot paper.
New parties.
Several parties contested the election for the first time and gained seats nationally and provincially:
Other new parties were formed but did not obtain seats nationally:
Alliances and defections.
The Independent Democrats party, which won four seats and 0.9% of the national vote in 2009, merged with the Democratic Alliance before the 2014 general election.
On 17 December 2013, the South African Press Association reported that five opposition parties, namely COPE, the IFP, the African Christian Democratic Party, the United Christian Democratic Party and the Freedom Front Plus, had formed a coalition with 20 specific priorities. The parties in the coalition, named the Collective for Democracy (CD) and chaired by COPE leader Mosiuoa Lekota, will retain their own identity and contest the election individually. The IFP denied being part of the coalition, saying they were wary of forming such alliances given the confusion it had caused for their supporters in previous elections. Three days later, the 20th, COSATU's largest affiliate National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) announced that they would not endorse the ANC or any other political party in 2014. NUMSA planned to establish a new working class collective along the lines of the defunct United Democratic Front, with the ultimate goal of forming a socialist party that will contest the 2019 general election. An opposing COSATU faction has obtained a legal opinion on removing NUMSA from COSATU, with significant implications for the country's labour and political landscape.
On 28 January 2014, the DA announced that Mamphela Ramphele had accepted an invitation to stand as its presidential candidate in the 2014 general election, and the DA and Agang South Africa were set to merge. On the 31st, Ramphele stated that she would not take up DA party membership and would remain the leader of Agang South Africa, resulting in confusion. On 2 February, Helen Zille stated that Ramphele had reneged on her agreement to stand as the DA's presidential candidate. Ramphele subsequently apologised for the reversal of her decision, saying that the timing was not right as the reaction to it had shown people were unable to overcome race-based party politics.
On 6 February, it was reported that COPE members who support Mbhazima Shilowa's planned to join the United Democratic Movement led by Bantu Holomisa which won four seats in the 2009 election. On 10 March, it was reported that COPE MP Nqaba Bhanga had joined the DA as an Eastern Cape parliamentary candidate, and three COPE MPs, namely Julie Kilian, Leonard Ramatlakane and Nic Koornhof were included on the ANC's list of national parliamentary candidates published on 11 March. On 28 April, it was reported that over 20 COPE MPs had defected to the ANC citing "poor political leadership". The only COPE member in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, Lucky Gabela, subsequently also defected to the ANC citing internal conflict.
On 11 March, Al Jama-ah and the Africa Muslim Party announced they would campaign together under the Al Jama-ah Community Party banner. The next day, it was reported that DA MP Beverley Abrahams had joined the ANC. On the 17th, Economic Freedom Fighters announced agreement to establish working relations with the Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) and Black Consciousness Party (BCP), who would not independently stand for elections, but their candidates would be part of the EFF election 2014 candidates list as EFF members. EFF also had members of South Africa First (SAF) in the list who hold dual membership. Although SAF had not agreed to them being on the EFF list, its leadership collective endorsed the lists.
On the 20th, it was reported that DA MPs Lourie Bosman, Niekie van den Berg and Theo Coetzee were joining Freedom Front Plus on the party's national candidates list for the 2014 election. On the 30th, it was reported in the "Sunday Times" that DA MP Mpowele Swathe had joined the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP) after his name appeared on election candidate lists for both parties.
Endorsements.
On 2 May 2014, the "Mail &amp; Guardian" newspaper "urged readers to oppose the ANC" for the first time, to dilute the ruling party's "overweening political power". The editorial cited the support of Cabinet ministers for the controversial proposed "secrecy law" and the ANC's "cynical response to the Nkandla scandal" among its reasons. A "Financial Mail" editorial published on the same day, cited unemployment and changes in the government's administration and policies which impacted business negatively. It stated "the ANC does not get our endorsement this time" and "our vote goes to the DA". An editorial published in "The Economist" the following day, cited unemployment and an increase in corruption under Zuma's leadership in particular and stated that the ANC and Zuma "no longer deserve to rule" and "The DA deserves to be endorsed." Also on the 2nd, Abahlali baseMjondolo, a social movement representing shack dwellers which previously supported the No Land! No House! No Vote! election boycott campaign, announced its provincial endorsement of the DA in KwaZulu-Natal for the election as a tactical vote against the ANC.
Voter registration.
Local voters.
On the weekends of 9–10 November 2013 and 8–9 February 2014 all voting stations were opened for new voters to register and for those who moved residence to re-register in their new voting district. The presidency of South Africa urged voters who had missed the voting station registration weekends to register at an IEC office during office hours. Presidential spokesperson, Mac Maharaj, said that voters were allowed to register to vote until the election date is published in a government gazette, after which the voters' roll is closed. Approximately 5.5 million people in total visited voting stations, including between 1 and 2 million new voters. This increased the number of registered voters to 25.3 million, representing 80.5% of the 31.4 million people eligible to vote in the country. South Africans who were born after the 1994 general election, known as the "born-free" generation, and are aged 18 or older were eligible to vote for the first time.
International voters.
South Africans living abroad could register to vote at any South African Embassy, High Commission or Consulate-General from 9 January 2014 to 7 February 2014. South Africans living abroad who wished to vote had to notify the IEC of their intention to vote by 12 March 2014. The weekends of 18–19 January and 25–26 January were made registration weekends to accommodate voters who were unable to register during business hours. Over 26,000 voters were registered to vote abroad by the time of the election.
A total of 26,701 voters were registered to vote abroad, with the highest numbers of voters being registered to vote in London (9,863), Dubai (1,539) and Canberra (1,243) with other stations totalling 14,056 registered voters.
Opinion polling.
National ballot.
According to an internal poll conducted by the DA with American pollster Stan Greenberg in March–April 2014, the ANC would get 59% of the vote, the DA 26% and the EFF 8%.
In an Ipsos survey of 1,000 registered ANC members conducted for the "Sunday Times" in December 2013, 55% of respondents said