Well seeing as South Africa has it's elections next Wednesday and this is the political megadump thread it's like a match made in heaven. Not that I particularly like politics or politicians, but this is shaping up to be one of the more "exciting" elections. The outcome is a given - the
ANC will win and Jacob Zuma will be president - however it's how the other parties place that will be interesting.
The foremost question is will the
ANC retain a 2/3s majority and constitution changing power. And if so will Zuma change the constitution so he (the president) can't be prosecuted. And that is a worrying question because the ANC solemnly promised that they will not touch the constitution (and have not) because that would be the first step on the road to becoming a banana republic.
Unfortunately with the recent division in the
ANC and the subsequent splitting from party of
COPE, a lot of the intelligent
ANC party members have left - which is not surprising when you consider that firing the countries president, Thabo Mbeki, months before he had to step down for a personal vendetta is a childish and stupid thing to do.
COPE was formed too close to election time and don't look like they've managed to amass a significant amount of support although nobody can really say until after the election. Sadly it looks like the more savvy (sane?)
ANC party members have really just removed themselves from the running.
Then there's the
DA who're the opposition party, only that's all they do - they oppose. Regardless of whether or not a bill is a good idea they'll oppose it. But they are slowly gaining support as people become disenchanted with the
ANCs lack of delivery of basic services, housing and jobs.
Previously voting was more of a census than a decision based on political manifestos. Generally (painting everyone with a bit of a broad brush) blacks vote for the
ANC (African National Congress) unless they're Zulu in which case they vote for the
IFP (Inkatha Freedom Party). Whites vote for the
DA (Democratic Alliance) and small towns will vote for fringe parties like the
VF (Freedom Front), the
ID (Independent Democrats) and the
ACDP (African Christian Democratic Party).
This time round
COPE puts a spanner in the works because they should also be an appealing black party but the
ANCs been running a dirty and borderline illegal campaign against them so it's really difficult to tell how they'll do.
All of that said if you want to find out who you would be voting for (by manifesto) you can check out
vote 2009. It's kind of funny in a sad way how completely ignored the party manifestos are. Apparently I should be voting for both the
IFP and the
VF despite the fact they're wildly different parties. Hopefully this means they're stopping the name calling and have grown up enough to deal with real political problems.
It's gonna be a wild ride
