South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), fell below a majority in new nationwide polls of voters, but there is no opposition party — or coalition of opposition parties — that could yet form an alternative governing majority.
The Daily Maverick website reported:
A new representative poll by Ipsos suggests that if an election were held tomorrow, the ANC would get 42%, the DA [Democratic Alliance] 11%, the EFF [Economic Freedom Fighters] 9% and Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA 3% of the votes at a national level. A second poll, published by Rapportat the weekend, has the ANC at 38%, the DA at 27% and the EFF at 10%.
…The poll is a snapshot of eligible voters, not registered voters, and the DA usually does better than it is polled because it gets its members to register and to go out and vote.
However, the ANC’s downward spiral is not any other party’s gain.
Voters are upset about economic stagnation, persistent electricity shortages, crime, and poor government services in general.
In South Africa’s parliamentary democracy, parties can combine to form majority coalitions that share power in government. Current polls suggest that a DA-led coalition would fall far short — especially since the DA has vowed not to form any future coalitions with the radical EFF, after past efforts at working together failed.
South Africa’s next national election is in 2024.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.