Survey points to SA voter apathy
The SA Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) says that the number of South Africans declining to exercise their right to vote paints a worrying picture.
The latest South Africa Survey, published by the Institute of Race Relations, noted that the proportion of South Africans who did not vote in national and provincial elections increased from 14% in 1994 to 35% in 2009.
The Survey is the annual yearbook on all social, economic, and political aspects of South Africa that the IRR has been publishing since 1946.
In 1994 as many as 86% of eligible voters voted in the national and provincial election, but by 2009 that proportion had dropped below 70%.
The data was obtained from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), Race Relations said.
The Independent Electoral Commission recently announced that the number of registered voters had surpassed 25 million people, representing 80.5% of the eligible voting population.
However, according to the SAIRR, recent opinion polls suggest this trend may continue. Opinion polls carried out by a market research company, Pondering Panda, in July 2013, found that almost a quarter of South Africans do not intend to vote in the 2014 national elections.
Respondents were asked, ‘Do you intend to vote in the 2014 elections?’ All interviews were carried out using social media (Mxit) accessed via cellular phones and focused on people between the ages of 18 and 34.
The responses were weighted (based on the All Media Products Survey (AMPS) that covers the total adult population of South Africa) to match the demographics of this segment of South Africa’s population.
When respondents were asked why they would not vote, almost half (44%) said that things would stay the same no matter who won the election and a third (31%) stated that there was no party worth voting for.
Georgina Alexander, a researcher at the IRR, said: “This information, combined with the increasing number of violent protests, paints a worrying picture. Rife corruption and lack of accountability among public officials has caused people in South Africa to lose confidence in political and governmental structures’.
President Jacob Zuma recently announced May 7 as the date for the national elections.
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