ANC set for two-thirds majority - poll Reuters, IOL, - TopicsExpress

ANC set for two-thirds majority - poll Reuters, IOL, Johannesburg, 20 April 2014 The African National Congress (ANC) is on course to win nearly a two-thirds majority in May 7 elections, a poll showed on Sunday, confounding analysts who had predicted a fall in support for South Africas ruling party 20 years after the end of apartheid. The poll, published by South Africas Sunday Times newspaper, said the ANC was likely to win 65.5 percent of the vote, only a shade lower than the 65.9 percent it won at the last national elections in 2009. The survey was conducted on April 4, after Public Protector Thuli Madonsela - South Africas top anti-corruption watchdog - published a damning report into a $21 million state-funded security upgrade to President Jacob Zumas private home. Madonsela judged that Zuma had benefited unduly from the upgrades, which included a swimming pool, chicken run and amphitheatre at his residence at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal, and should pay back some of the money. While overall support for the ANC remained largely unaffected by the Nkandla scandal, the poll said Zumas personal approval ratings had slipped to 62 percent from 65 percent before Madonsela delivered her findings. The poll also showed that the Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party that already governs the Western Cape Province, was on track to build its national support from 16.6 percent in 2009 to 23.1 percent this year. It put support for the Economic Freedom Fighters, a radical leftist party founded last year by expelled ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema, at 4 percent. The poll, conducted by Ipsos, surveyed 2,219 voters nationwide.