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South African general election, 2009

← 2004 April 22, 2009
All 400 seats to the National Assembly of South Africa
Leader Jacob Zuma Helen Zille Party ANC DA Last election 279 seats, 69.69% 50 seats, 12.37%
Incumbent President Kgalema Motlanthe ANC

Template:Election south africa South Africa held national and provincial elections to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each province on April 22, 2009.

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 is chosen by the National Assembly after each election. The premiers of each province are chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.

These will be the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era.

The Pretoria High Court ruled on 9 February 2009 that South African citizens living abroad should be allowed to vote in elections. The judgment was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 12 March 2009, when it decided that overseas voters who were already registered would be allowed to vote.

Parties on ballots

African National Congress - ruling party

The African National Congress is currently the ruling party in parliament, having won 69.69% of the vote at the 2004 elections. Since then a number of internal changes have occurred, the primary one being the election of Jacob Zuma to the party presidency ahead of Thabo Mbeki at the 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress held on 18 December 2007. Zuma's victory in the election was partly due to the wide degree of support for him from the ANC Youth League, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.

Subsequent to this, in 2008 Zuma's ongoing corruption trial in relation to a multi-billion Rand arms deal was dismissed by the courts, which insinuated that Mbeki had unduly influenced the investigation into Zuma. In light of the court's findings, the ANC's National Executive Committee asked Mbeki to resign as president of the country, which he duly did on 20 September 2008.

Mbeki was replaced by Kgalema Motlanthe, who had been elected as ANC deputy president at the 2007 conference. Motlanthe is not the presidential candidate of the ANC for the next general elections, however: this is the current President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma. The ANC's electoral list is led by Zuma, followed by Motlanthe, Deputy President of South Africa Baleka Mbete, finance minister Trevor Manuel and Winnie Mandela, former wife of Nelson Mandela..

The recall of Mbeki, amongst other issues, created severe tensions and splits within the party, and eventually led to the formation of the Congress of the People, a new political party formed by former ANC members. Nevertheless, most pre-poll predictions gave the ANC between sixty and seventy per cent of the popular vote; even the lowest prediction, giving the ANC 47 per cent, still renders it comfortably South Africa's most favoured political party.

Opposition

Democratic Alliance

The Democratic Alliance is currently the official opposition party in Parliament. It also leads the opposition in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament. In addition to this, the DA leads a coalition government in the City of Cape Town, where the national leader of the party, Helen Zille, is the mayor.

The party is expected to take control of the Western Cape provincial government in the upcoming elections. It has been confirmed that Zille is the DA candidate for premier of the Western Cape.In November 2008, the party predicted that it would increase its national support to 21% in the forthcoming election.

Congress of the People

The Congress of the People was formed in 2008 by former members of the ANC in the aftermath of president Mbeki's resignation. Consisting largely of former ANC members, the party was expected to do well at the elections, with analysts predicting that it could receive between 9-18% of the vote. However, recent polling has shown that the party could only draw 8 - 12% of the vote with some polls placing the party at 6% COPE have chosen Bishop Mvume Dandala as their presidential candidate.

Other parties

The 2009 election will also see a different political atmosphere, as the New National Party, which inherited much of the National Party's legacy and competed in the 2004 general election, merged into the ANC in 2005 via the floor crossing legislation. Currently, there are 15 parties represented in the National Assembly. Twenty-eight political parties submitted candidate lists to contest the elections.

On Sunday, April 5, the Inkatha Freedom Party alleged "serious instances of political intolerance and intimidation in Greytown, where the ANC denied the IFP their right to campaign freely". The party claimed that it was "becoming evident that the ANC is now realising that its electoral fortunes in KwaZulu Natal are slipping away and is resorting to desperate gutter electioneering tactics to stop the IFP and other parties from campaigning."

Option to vote online

For the first time, the option for millions to express their voting preferences online has been provided. While this merely reflects opinion, it should show some interesting trends in South African and Global society. http://www.worldvoting.net/c/south-africa/

2009 Election Boycott

In 2009, South Africa's Poor People's Alliance, the Anti-Privatisation Forum and the independent farmworkers' union Sikuhla Sonke resolved to boycott the election under the banner No Land! No House! No Vote!. The result has been that entire communities (including the hotly contested community of Delft) have resolved not to vote in in the 2009 election.

References

1. Motlanthe sets election date IOL.co.za, February 10, 2009
2. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7878858.stm
3. http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90777/90855/6612952.html
4. "Final List of Parties to contest the 2009 Elections". Polity.org.za. 2009-03-11. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
5. http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2007/pr1219.html (Press Statement: Results for the Election of ANC Officials, 19 December 2007)
6. http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=./ancdocs/pr/2008/pr0108.html (Statement of the ANC National Executive Committee, 8 January 2008.) The ANC National Executive Committee confirmed that "the ANC President will lead the ANC election campaign as the organisation's candidate for president of South Africa in the 2009 election."
7. Winnie set for shock comeback to ANC politics
8. Perry, Alex. "South African Election: Why It Matters." TIME. 21 April 2009. (accessed April 21, 2009).
9. Trollip in line for DA post Daily Dispatch. 10 January 2009
10. DA: Announcement of Helen Zille as the DA's candidate for Western Cape Premier Polity. 2 March 2009
11. DA plans to almost double vote share Business Day. 11 November 2008
12. http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page71619?oid=120252&sn=Detail
13. COPE’s- Eastern Cape bias carries risk, say analysts, Business Day, 2009-01-21
14. Bishop elbows aside Lekota, Shilowa M&G
15. Parties meet IEC deadline
16. "IFP to Brief Media on Serious Instances of Political Intolerance in KZN". Inkatha Freedom Party. 2009-04-05. Retrieved 2009-04-13.
17. "Elections: A Dangerous Time for Poor People's Movements in South Africa". SACSIS.
18. ""No Vote" Campaigns are not a Rejection of Democracy". Mail and Guardian.
19. ""Why we refuse to vote". Cape Argus.

See also

• South Africa prepares for elections

• List of political parties in South Africa
• South African municipal election, 2012

v t e Elections and referendums in South Africa
General elections	1910 1915 1920 1921 1924 1929 1933 1938 1943 1948 1953 1958 1961 1966 1970 1974 1977 1981 1984 1987 1989 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Provincial elections	1910 1917 1935 1936 1943 1949 1954 1959 1965 1970 1974 1981 1994 1999 2004 2009 2014 2019 2024
Municipal elections	1995–96 2000 2006 2011 2016 2021
Referendums	1960 1983 1992
See also: Elections and referendums in the Boer republics and South African colonies Elections and referendums in South African Bantustans

• 2009 elections in Africa
• 2009 in South Africa
• Elections in South Africa