Elections in South Africa

On April 22, 2009, South Africa held their fourth democratic elections to choose who would be their country’s ruling party (and ruling president) for the next five years.

Having democratic elections is very significant in South Africa today. Until 1994, South Africa was ruled under a system called Apartheid, which allowed the government to treat people unfairly based on their race. After many difficult years of struggle, South Africa finally became a democracy 15 years ago! Now all people can vote fairly in order to choose who they would like to see in their government.

Since becoming a democracy in 1994, the African National Congress (also known as the ANC) has been the main ruling political party, and on April 22nd they once again won with almost two-thirds majority of the vote. According to the way elections work in South Africa, this means that the ANC will now hold almost two-thirds of the 400 seats in the country’s parliament. 

In South Africa, it is the elected members of parliament who are responsible for choosing the president, and because the ANC won such a large portion of the parliament’s seats once again, it is expected that Jacob Zuma (who is the president of the ANC party) will be chosen to be the president of the country, as well. 

Although it is so likely that he will become president, some people see Zuma as a controversial choice. Over the last few years, Zuma has had some charges brought against him for possible problems with money and other things. As of now, all of the charges against him have been dropped or acquitted (meaning he was found not guilty). In spite of the problems, lots of people see him as a good choice and still stand strongly with the ANC, which was a very key party in helping to end Apartheid and still has many loyal followers because of that.

Whether or not Zuma is a controversial choice for president, many people see South Africa’s elections as an example for many other African countries, who have had problems holding fair and democratic elections in recent years and who will hopefully be soon to follow suit!