Close to the end of voting in the Indian elections, there will be another historic election several thousand miles away - in South Africa. The first major post-Mandela political event in the country, this election will also be the first one with born free voters - young people born after the end of apartheid. About 4-5% of the voters will be from this group. As in India, in SA too there has been growing dissatisfaction with the performance of the party of the freedom struggle - the African National Congress. It is seen by more and more people as corrupt and incompetent, with steadily declining vote share from election to election. This year, for the first time, ANCs vote share could be just about 50% or more (in the current Parliament it is about 65%), and the party may be forced into coalition governance. This transformation in SA has happened for many reasons, but one has been particularly instrumental, I believe. In that country, they use a system of proportionate representation - if a party gets 10% of the vote, it will get 10% of the seats in Parliament too. No vote is ever wasted. People dont indulge in tactical voting very much - they simply support whoever they support, and thats the end of it. This has allowed the emergence of the Democratic Alliance - from its support base among white communities - as the LIBERAL alternative to the ANC. The idea that a freedom party would be threatened not by conservative forces, but by liberal ones, is itself an incredible development, and shows the extent to which ANC has collapsed from its heights.
Posted on: Sat, 05 Apr 2014 12:30:40 +0000
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