High voter turnout points to fed-up citizens

The high voter turnout that seems to have caught everyone by surprise indicates that South Africans are fed up and want to have their say in who should lead them.

Political analysts and observers shared these sentiments yesterday as it became evident from long voting queues during Wednesday's poll that voter turnout was likely to surpass previous elections. According to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC)  the last ballot was cast in the early hours of yesterday at a voting station in Arcadia, Pretoria. Images and videos of snaking queues across the country were shared on social media platforms long after the 9pm closing time of voting stations.

According to political analyst Lukhona Mnguni, part of the the reason why people were surprised by voter turnout in this election was because of the poor showing by the electorate in the 2021 municipal elections.

“We know that the turnout for local government elections and the turnout for national and provincial elections are not the same but the way the local government elections plummeted caused a sense of worry and panic among people.

“In that instance, this was a bit of a surprise [on the high turnout] but I also think that people had bought into the idea that a lot of South Africans had checked out of politics,” he said.

Mnguni said another factor that might have resulted in people being surprised was studies that were being published on the eve of the elections, such as the Afro Barometer, which said people had lost trust in politics, political parties and leaders in a significant way.

“I think people defied all of that because they saw a window of opportunity to probably effect change in these elections and communicate serious messages to the incumbent political parties and politicians.”

Community activist and former DA MP Mbali Ntuli said there seemed to be a surprise over the high turnout,  no one had factored in just how “fed up” South Africans were and decided to have a say.

“Political parties underestimated that people are fed up. Even though the IEC was also hoping for a higher turnout, I think they may have slightly underestimated how many people, judging by the number of how many queues we had and how long they were taking.

“Even with special votes, there were 1.6-million people who registered. Some people didn’t get home visits and they [still] came out to vote.”

Tshepo Madlingozi, a commissioner at the SA Human Rights Commission said more South Africans turned out at voting stations because staying at home would not bring the changes they hoped for.

“If we look at the past, the youth stayed away from elections so there was this narrative that the youth were apathetic, they didn’t care about politics, but the truth is, it was politics not to vote,” Madlingozi said.

“But people thought it doesn’t help to stay at home because it does not change a thing. Even if you don’t agree with the parties, it doesn’t help to stay away, but this year they decided to vote rather than stay away.”

According to Tessa Dooms, the high voter turnout could also be attributed to a “backlash against the ANC”.

“...or this turn out is people turning out against the ANC for the first time and we don’t know what that can be until tomorrow.”

Political analyst Sam Mkokeli said the turnout was not a surprise to the IEC, which had indicated in February that they were expecting more people to vote.

However, Mkokeli said, the commission should have planned better for voters who experienced technical glitches and long queues at voting stations.  – Additional reporting by Noxolo Sibiya.