An expert says South Africans are more likely to vote based on loyalty.
While corruption has become a thorny issue in South Africa, an expert says South Africans have been known to vote loyally rather than on an issue basis.
This emerged from a seminar held by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) on Tuesday in Pretoria with the theme, “The Disappearing Labour Theory: Understanding Recent Voting Patterns in South Africa’s Elections”.
Speaking at the seminar, Dr Ben Roberts from the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) told those present that corruption has been a salient issue in the country.
“We historically have not been issue voters; we have been loyalist voters, and I think what we are seeing is what political scientists are calling fluidity in our voting patterns, so people are not consistently voting for the same party over time. A degree of swing voting is starting to come in,” said Roberts.
Roberts said these are patterns that the IEC should monitor and digest.
“It’s not only vote versus abstain; it’s the patterns in between that are becoming very interesting,” he said.
Using stats in the national debate
Meanwhile, former statistician-general Pali Lehohla told delegates at the seminar that South Africans must continue having conversations about the kind of country they want to live in.
He said these conversations could also take place on digital platforms. According to Lehohla, these conversations should be empowered by available data and information about the present reality of all South Africans.
“People must get their longitudinal experiences and based on those longitudinal experiences, they must actually establish their manifestos and you as the media must help them to do that because only in that way we can exercise our politics…without that we will go through the same drama again and again,” he said.
Young voters
Meanwhile, the IEC said it is taking a different approach to encouraging young people to come out in big numbers to vote; this includes a show that will be aired on SABC, music, roping in influencers and content creators, and reaching out to young people in their respective communities.
According to reports, more than 28.6 million South Africans have registered to vote since the last voter registration weekend at the end of June. This is around 60% of the adult population.
Political parties have also been encouraged to get South Africans to register to vote. Poor voter turnout has been blamed on hung municipalities in the previous local government elections.
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