South Africa: Who would win if there were elections tomorrow

Afrobarometer has released it's latest round of data regarding South African's current political preferences. With the upcoming 2019 elections, the results aren't quite what we expected.

The research network focuses on democracy and governance on the African continent. According to their website:

Afrobarometer is a pan-African, non-partisan research network that conducts public attitude surveys on democracy, governance, economic conditions, and related issues in more than 35 countries in Africa. Through our findings, ordinary citizens can have a voice in policy-making processes that affect their lives.

Their latest publication produced in conjunction with The Institute for Justice and Reconciliation makes for an interesting read.

With the hugely eventful 12 months our country has experienced, polls like these are an exciting way to have a look at the views of average South Africans.

One of the main points to be found in the report is the emergence of the EFF as a real political force in South Africa. Most interestingly though, the ANC seems to have survived the last three years no worse off than it started.

Looking at the data, the DA's loss seems to have been the EFF's gain, which I don't think anyone would have expected. The DA had 17 per cent of responders in 2015 happy to vote for them to the EFF's 9 per cent.

Image credit: Afrobarometer.org If elections were held today, both parties would win 11 per cent of the votes, according to the respondents of the survey, while 48 per cent say they would vote for the ANC.

One of the most interesting results of the report, though, was that 62 per cent of the responders would give up elections for the promise of security, housing and jobs.

Image credit: Afrobarometer.org This is some indictment of our current electoral system and perhaps speaks to just how fed up the man on the street has become with the political games that rarely end up creating meaningful change.

Overall, the report makes for interesting reading, and I encourage you to give it a once over especially if you happen to be a politician with an interest in what South Africans think about the job you're doing so far.

Tags: 2019 South African ElectionsAfrobarometerANCDAEFFElectionsSouth Africa

LINK:	https://www.thesouthafrican.com/south-africa-who-would-win-if-there-we...
	See more stories from thesouthafrican

Most recent headlines