2009 South African general election

General elections were held in South Africa on 22 April 2009 to elect members of the National Assembly and provincial legislatures. These were the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era.

2009 South African general election

22 April 2009
All 400 seats in the National Assembly 201 seats needed for a majority
Registered	23,181,997
Turnout	77.30% ( 0.60pp)
First party Second party Third party   Leader Jacob Zuma Helen Zille Mosiuoa Lekota Party ANC DA COPE Last election 69.69%, 279 seats 12.37%, 50 seats Did not exist Seats won 264 67 30 Seat change 15 17 New party Popular vote 11,650,748 2,945,829 1,311,027 Percentage 65.90% 16.66% 7.42% Swing 3.79pp 4.29pp New party   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi Patricia de Lille Bantu Holomisa Party IFP ID UDM Last election 6.97%, 28 seats 1.73%, 7 seats 2.28%, 9 seats Seats won 18 4 4 Seat change 10 3 5 Popular vote 804,260 162,915 149,680 Percentage 4.55% 0.92% 0.85% Swing 2.42pp 0.81pp 1.43pp
President before election Kgalema Motlanthe ANC Elected President Jacob Zuma ANC

Election ballot.

The North Gauteng 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. Registered voters who found themselves outside their registered voting districts on election day were also permitted to vote for the national ballot at any voting station in South Africa.

The result was a victory for the ruling African National Congress (ANC), which won 264 of the 400 seats in the National Assembly, a fifteen seat reduction compared to the 2004 elections and losing its two-thirds supermajority. ANC leader Jacob Zuma became president.

Background and campaign

African National Congress – ruling party

The African National Congress was the ruling party in parliament going into the 2009 elections, having won 69.69% of the vote at the 2004 elections. During its term in office a number of internal changes 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 was not the presidential candidate of the ANC for the 2009 general election, but rather the current President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma. The ANC's electoral list was 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 rendered it comfortably South Africa's most favoured political party.

Democratic Alliance – official opposition

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa's main opposition party, had undergone a leadership change, with Cape Town mayor and former anti-apartheid activist Helen Zille having succeeded long-serving Tony Leon in May 2007.

With a disproportionate focus on the Western Cape province, which it had identified as winnable, the DA launched its election campaign with the slogan "Vote to Win". It released its manifesto on 14 February.

The party was expected to perform strongly in the Western Cape, with analysts suggesting it would take control of the province from the ruling ANC. The ANC's support in the province was on the wane, while the DA had performed well in by-elections in the province leading up to the poll.

The party projected that it would govern in the Western Cape province – a task made easier by the ANC-COPE split – though it expected to need to form a governing coalition in order to do so. The party anticipated that it would take control of several other major cities and towns in the 2011 local elections, and, with what it termed a "realignment of SA politics", predicted it would take its "winning streak" into the 2014 elections, when it plans to challenge for the mantle of ruling party.

The DA's relationship with ANC breakaway party Cope started strongly. Cope leader Mosiuoa Lekota showed a willingness to co-operate with Zille in the future. Subsequently, Zille criticised COPE's internal structures and suggested many of the party's new members were merely Mbeki loyalists hoping to resurrect defunct political careers.

In the closing stages of the DA's campaign, it launched its "Stop Zuma" drive, which came under considerable criticism in the press—political analysts dubbing the tactic an example of "negative" politics. Zille later retorted, however, that what was really negative was the idea of handing over the right to change the Constitution unilaterally to Jacob Zuma and his "closed, crony network", as they would abuse that right both to enrich themselves and to protect themselves from prosecution. She later claimed the decline in the ANC's support base and the concomitant increase in that of her own party was a result of the DA 'Stop Zuma' campaign.

Electoral system

The 400 members of the National Assembly were elected by closed list proportional representation; two hundred members were elected from national party lists and 200 from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa was chosen by the National Assembly after the election; in 2009, the presidential election was held on 6 May. The premiers of each province are chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.

Boycott

A number of communities, organisations, social movements and well-known personalities threatened not to vote in the 2009 elections. The most well-known personality was Archbishop Desmond Tutu who at first said he would not vote but then changed his mind. South Africa's Poor People's Alliance, the Anti-Privatisation Forum, NOPE, and the independent farmworkers' union Sikhula Sonke resolved to boycott the election under the banner No Land! No House! No Vote!.

Results

Most popular party in each ward, depicted as a map (top), and as a cartogram in which size is proportional to the number of votes cast (bottom).

     African National Congress
     Democratic Alliance
     Congress of the People
     Inkatha Freedom Party
     Independent Democrats
     United Democratic Movement

The darker shade indicates a majority, while the lighter shade indicates a non-majority plurality.

Map showing, for each municipality, the percentage point change in the ANC's share of the vote since the 2004 election

  37.5–50 pp to the ANC

  25–37.5 pp to the ANC

  12.5–25 pp to the ANC

  0–12.5 pp to the ANC

  0–12.5 pp away from the ANC

  12.5–25 pp away from the ANC

  25–37.5 pp away from the ANC

  37.5–50 pp away from the ANC

The ANC, which has been in power since 1994, obtained 65.90% of valid votes cast on the national ballot, making it just shy of being able to change the constitution. The DA retained its position as the official opposition and also won the election in the Western Cape province with an outright majority.

Some 23-million people were registered for the 2009 general elections, which was about 2.5 million more than in 2004. There was a 77.3% turnout of registered voters, 1.34% of whom spoiled their ballots rendering them invalid. About 12-million people eligible to vote either did not register to vote (about 7-million), or did register but did not vote (5.4 million). In this election, there was a slight decrease in voter abstention though there was at least one high-profile election and registration boycotts campaign, the No Land! No House! No Vote! Campaign.

The Independent Electoral Commission made results available on their website as they were received from voting districts, filtered by national, provincial, municipality, and voting district.

National Assembly

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	11,650,748	65.90	264	−15
	Democratic Alliance	2,945,829	16.66	67	+17
	Congress of the People	1,311,027	7.42	30	New
	Inkatha Freedom Party	804,260	4.55	18	−10
	Independent Democrats	162,915	0.92	4	−3
	United Democratic Movement	149,680	0.85	4	−5
	Freedom Front Plus	146,796	0.83	4	0
	African Christian Democratic Party	142,658	0.81	3	−4
	United Christian Democratic Party	66,086	0.37	2	−1
	Pan Africanist Congress	48,530	0.27	1	−2
	Minority Front	43,474	0.25	1	−1
	Azanian People's Organisation	38,245	0.22	1	0
	African People's Convention	35,867	0.20	1	New
	Movement Democratic Party	29,747	0.17	0	New
	Al Jama-ah	25,947	0.15	0	New
	Christian Democratic Alliance	11,638	0.07	0	0
	National Democratic Convention	10,830	0.06	0	New
	New Vision Party	9,296	0.05	0	New
	United Independent Front	8,872	0.05	0	New
	Great Kongress of South Africa	8,271	0.05	0	New
	South African Democratic Congress	6,035	0.03	0	New
	Keep It Straight and Simple Party	5,440	0.03	0	0
	Pan Africanist Movement	5,426	0.03	0	New
	Alliance of Free Democrats	5,178	0.03	0	New
	Women Forward	5,087	0.03	0	New
	A Party	2,847	0.02	0	New
Total		17,680,729	100.00	400	0
Valid votes		17,680,729	98.66
Invalid/blank votes		239,237	1.34
Total votes		17,919,966	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		23,181,997	77.30
Source: Election Resources

Provincial legislatures

The following table summarises the results of the elections to the provincial legislatures. The majority party in each province is indicated in bold.

Party		EC	FS	G	KZN	L	M	NW	NC	WC
	African National Congress	44	22	47	51	43	27	25	19	14
	Democratic Alliance	6	3	16	7	2	2	3	4	22
	Congress of the People	9	4	6	1	4	1	3	5	3
	Inkatha Freedom Party			1	18
	Independent Democrats			1					2	2
	African Christian Democratic Party			1	1					1
	United Democratic Movement	3
	Freedom Front Plus		1	1
	Minority Front				2
	United Christian Democratic Party							2
	African Independent Congress	1
Total		63	30	73	80	49	30	33	30	42

Eastern Cape

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	1,552,676	68.82	44	−7
	Congress of the People	308,439	13.67	9	New
	Democratic Alliance	225,310	9.99	6	+1
	United Democratic Movement	93,196	4.13	3	−3
	African Independent Congress	17,306	0.77	1	New
	Pan Africanist Congress	12,108	0.54	0	−1
	African Christian Democratic Party	11,974	0.53	0	0
	Independent Democrats	10,466	0.46	0	0
	Azanian People's Organisation	4,598	0.20	0	0
	African People's Convention	4,517	0.20	0	New
	Freedom Front Plus	4,428	0.20	0	0
	Inkatha Freedom Party	2,270	0.10	0	0
	National Democratic Convention	2,027	0.09	0	New
	Pan Africanist Movement	1,921	0.09	0	New
	United Christian Democratic Party	1,908	0.08	0	0
	Christian Democratic Alliance	1,663	0.07	0	New
	New Vision Party	1,281	0.06	0	New
Total		2,256,088	100.00	63	0
Valid votes		2,256,088	98.59
Invalid/blank votes		32,299	1.41
Total votes		2,288,387	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		3,056,559	74.87
Source: Election Resources

Free State

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	734,688	71.10	22	−3
	Congress of the People	120,018	11.61	4	New
	Democratic Alliance	119,844	11.60	3	0
	Freedom Front Plus	20,780	2.01	1	0
	Dikwankwetla Party	11,257	1.09	0	0
	African Christian Democratic Party	7,556	0.73	0	−1
	United Democratic Movement	3,722	0.36	0	0
	United Christian Democratic Party	3,459	0.33	0	0
	Pan Africanist Congress	3,449	0.33	0	0
	African People's Convention	3,200	0.31	0	New
	Inkatha Freedom Party	2,232	0.22	0	0
	Independent Democrats	1,654	0.16	0	0
	National Democratic Convention	1,065	0.10	0	New
	Peace and Justice Congress	398	0.04	0	New
Total		1,033,322	100.00	30	0
Valid votes		1,033,322	98.50
Invalid/blank votes		15,744	1.50
Total votes		1,049,066	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,388,588	75.55
Source: Election Resources

Gauteng

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	2,662,013	64.04	47	−4
	Democratic Alliance	908,616	21.86	16	+1
	Congress of the People	323,327	7.78	6	New
	Freedom Front Plus	67,660	1.63	1	0
	Inkatha Freedom Party	61,856	1.49	1	−1
	African Christian Democratic Party	36,099	0.87	1	0
	Independent Democrats	25,243	0.61	1	0
	United Democratic Movement	16,480	0.40	0	−1
	Pan Africanist Congress	12,880	0.31	0	−1
	United Christian Democratic Party	10,091	0.24	0	0
	Azanian People's Organisation	8,927	0.21	0	0
	Movement Democratic Party	5,731	0.14	0	New
	African People's Convention	5,123	0.12	0	New
	Christian Democratic Alliance	2,901	0.07	0	0
	African Christian Alliance	2,541	0.06	0	New
	Women Forward	1,974	0.05	0	New
	Great Kongress of South Africa	1,909	0.05	0	New
	National Democratic Convention	1,497	0.04	0	New
	Alliance of Free Democrats	1,101	0.03	0	New
	New Vision Party	1,079	0.03	0	New
Total		4,157,048	100.00	73	0
Valid votes		4,157,048	98.98
Invalid/blank votes		42,815	1.02
Total votes		4,199,863	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		5,555,159	75.60
Source: Election Resources

KwaZulu-Natal

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	2,192,516	62.95	51	+13
	Inkatha Freedom Party	780,027	22.40	18	−12
	Democratic Alliance	318,559	9.15	7	0
	Minority Front	71,507	2.05	2	0
	Congress of the People	44,890	1.29	1	New
	African Christian Democratic Party	23,537	0.68	1	−1
	United Democratic Movement	7,953	0.23	0	−1
	Al Jama-ah	7,612	0.22	0	New
	National Democratic Convention	6,881	0.20	0	New
	Independent Democrats	6,853	0.20	0	0
	Freedom Front Plus	5,760	0.17	0	0
	African People's Convention	5,087	0.15	0	New
	South African Democratic Congress	3,883	0.11	0	New
	Pan Africanist Congress	2,578	0.07	0	0
	Women Forward	1,816	0.05	0	New
	United Christian Democratic Party	1,798	0.05	0	0
	Great Kongress of South Africa	1,730	0.05	0	New
Total		3,482,987	100.00	80	0
Valid votes		3,482,987	98.76
Invalid/blank votes		43,713	1.24
Total votes		3,526,700	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		4,475,217	78.81
Source: Election Resources

Limpopo

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	1,265,631	84.88	43	−2
	Congress of the People	112,325	7.53	4	New
	Democratic Alliance	51,856	3.48	2	0
	African Christian Democratic Party	10,246	0.69	0	−1
	Freedom Front Plus	9,035	0.61	0	0
	Pan Africanist Congress	7,934	0.53	0	0
	New Vision Party	6,497	0.44	0	New
	Azanian People's Organisation	5,640	0.38	0	0
	United Democratic Movement	5,193	0.35	0	−1
	African People's Convention	4,455	0.30	0	New
	Ximoko Party	3,452	0.23	0	0
	United Independent Front	1,769	0.12	0	New
	Black Consciousness Party	1,432	0.10	0	New
	Independent Democrats	1,333	0.09	0	0
	United Christian Democratic Party	1,320	0.09	0	0
	Alliance of Free Democrats	1,041	0.07	0	New
	Women Forward	977	0.07	0	New
	Inkatha Freedom Party	936	0.06	0	New
Total		1,491,072	100.00	49	0
Valid votes		1,491,072	98.51
Invalid/blank votes		22,549	1.49
Total votes		1,513,621	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,256,073	67.09
Source: Election Resources

Mpumalanga

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	1,110,190	85.55	27	0
	Democratic Alliance	97,204	7.49	2	0
	Congress of the People	37,789	2.91	1	New
	Freedom Front Plus	11,590	0.89	0	−1
	African Christian Democratic Party	6,565	0.51	0	0
	Inkatha Freedom Party	6,540	0.50	0	0
	Sindawonye Progressive Party	6,423	0.49	0	0
	African People's Convention	4,834	0.37	0	New
	Pan Africanist Congress	4,097	0.32	0	0
	United Democratic Movement	3,366	0.26	0	0
	Azanian People's Organisation	2,928	0.23	0	0
	Christian Party	2,435	0.19	0	New
	Independent Democrats	1,527	0.12	0	0
	National Democratic Convention	1,374	0.11	0	New
	United Christian Democratic Party	913	0.07	0	0
Total		1,297,775	100.00	30	0
Valid votes		1,297,775	98.55
Invalid/blank votes		19,119	1.45
Total votes		1,316,894	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,696,705	77.61
Source: Election Resources

North West

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	783,794	72.89	25	−2
	Congress of the People	89,573	8.33	3	New
	Democratic Alliance	88,728	8.25	3	+1
	United Christian Democratic Party	56,678	5.27	2	−1
	Freedom Front Plus	19,463	1.81	0	−1
	African Christian Democratic Party	7,366	0.69	0	0
	United Democratic Movement	5,467	0.51	0	0
	Independent Democrats	4,984	0.46	0	0
	Movement Democratic Party	4,432	0.41	0	New
	African People's Convention	3,116	0.29	0	New
	Pan Africanist Congress	2,831	0.26	0	0
	Azanian People's Organisation	2,712	0.25	0	0
	South African Political Party	1,832	0.17	0	New
	African Christian Alliance	1,750	0.16	0	New
	Inkatha Freedom Party	1,619	0.15	0	0
	National Democratic Convention	978	0.09	0	New
Total		1,075,323	100.00	33	0
Valid votes		1,075,323	98.08
Invalid/blank votes		21,007	1.92
Total votes		1,096,330	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		1,564,357	70.08
Source: Election Resources

Northern Cape

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	African National Congress	245,699	60.75	19	−2
	Congress of the People	67,416	16.67	5	New
	Democratic Alliance	50,817	12.57	4	+1
	Independent Democrats	19,995	4.94	2	0
	Freedom Front Plus	5,034	1.24	0	−1
	United Christian Democratic Party	4,889	1.21	0	0
	African Christian Democratic Party	4,041	1.00	0	−1
	Azanian People's Organisation	2,439	0.60	0	0
	African People's Convention	1,364	0.34	0	New
	Pan Africanist Congress	882	0.22	0	0
	Inkatha Freedom Party	757	0.19	0	0
	United Democratic Movement	604	0.15	0	0
	Christian Democratic Alliance	481	0.12	0	New
Total		404,418	100.00	30	0
Valid votes		404,418	98.49
Invalid/blank votes		6,190	1.51
Total votes		410,608	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		554,900	74.00
Source: Election Resources

Western Cape

Main article: 2009 Western Cape provincial election

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Democratic Alliance	1,012,568	51.46	22	+10
	African National Congress	620,918	31.55	14	−5
	Congress of the People	152,356	7.74	3	New
	Independent Democrats	92,116	4.68	2	−1
	African Christian Democratic Party	28,995	1.47	1	−1
	United Democratic Movement	14,013	0.71	0	−1
	Al Jama-ah	9,039	0.46	0	New
	Freedom Front Plus	8,384	0.43	0	0
	Pan Africanist Congress	4,467	0.23	0	0
	Africa Muslim Party	4,333	0.22	0	0
	Christian Democratic Alliance	3,987	0.20	0	0
	National Party South Africa	3,378	0.17	0	New
	Cape Party	2,552	0.13	0	New
	National Alliance	1,996	0.10	0	New
	African People's Convention	1,778	0.09	0	New
	United Christian Democratic Party	1,552	0.08	0	0
	Azanian People's Organisation	1,291	0.07	0	0
	United Independent Front	1,178	0.06	0	New
	Inkatha Freedom Party	1,158	0.06	0	0
	Peace and Justice Congress	630	0.03	0	0
	Universal Party	599	0.03	0	0
	National Democratic Convention	463	0.02	0	New
Total		1,967,751	100.00	42	0
Valid votes		1,967,751	98.99
Invalid/blank votes		20,026	1.01
Total votes		1,987,777	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		2,634,439	75.45
Source: Election Resources

NCOP seats

The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) consists of 90 members, ten elected by each provincial legislature. The Members of NCOP have to be elected in proportion to the party membership of the provincial legislature.

Party		Delegate type	Province									Total
			EC	FS	G	KZN	L	M	NW	NC	WC
	African National Congress	Permanent	4	4	4	4	5	5	4	3	2	35	62
		Special	3	3	3	3	4	4	3	3	1	27
	Democratic Alliance	Permanent	1	1	1	1		1	1	1	3	10	13
		Special			1						2	3
	Congress of the People	Permanent	1	1	1		1		1	1	1	7	8
		Special								1		1
	Independent Democrats	Permanent								1		1	2
		Special									1	1
	Inkatha Freedom Party	Permanent				1						1	2
		Special				1						1
	Freedom Front Plus	Special		1								1
	United Christian Democratic Party	Special							1			1
	United Democratic Movement	Special	1									1
Total			10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	10	90

Aftermath

The ANC received widespread congratulations for its decisive national victory, both from international and domestic sources. This included the opposition, with DA leader Helen Zille acknowledging that the people had given it a strong mandate to rule. "We trust that the ANC will not abuse this confidence, and will govern well and in the interests of all South Africans." However, with 65.9% of the vote and 264 seats in the National Assembly (down from 74.3% and 297 seats), the ANC no longer had the two-thirds majority it needed to change the Constitution unilaterally. The governing party had lost considerable support in 8 of the 9 provinces, partially compensated for by a big increase in KwaZulu-Natal at the expense of the IFP.

Thanking supporters the following week, DA leader Helen Zille related proudly that her party had achieved all three of its primary objectives: it had kept the ANC below a two-thirds majority (albeit only just), won an outright majority in the Western Cape and significantly improved its standing in parliament. Zille saw the results as a vindication of the party's statement at the beginning of its campaign that the only two genuine political forces in South Africa were the DA and the ANC, with the latter losing support while the former consistently gained it, and voters refusing to waste their ballots on small, insignificant parties.

See also

• African National Congress candidates for the 2009 South African general election
• List of political parties in South Africa
• 2011 South African municipal election
• 25th South African Parliament