58% of ANC supporters would keep voting for the party if deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa was its leader, according to\u00a0a new poll by research company Ratepop.<\/p>\n
The group surveyed over 2,100 people who voted for the ANC in 2016\u2019s local government elections, with the results published by the Sunday Times.<\/p>\n
The results showed that 1,205 of those surveyed said they would continue to vote for the ANC in the next general elections if Ramaphosa emerged victorious in the ANC’s elective conference.<\/p>\n
Only 605 people would vote ANC with Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in charge.<\/p>\n
On the other side of the results, 261 people said they were \u201cless likely\u201d to give the ANC the nod with Ramaphosa at the helm, and \u00a0284 said they were not sure how they would vote if Dlamini-Zuma was party leader.<\/p>\n
Notably, more than 900 people, or 46%, said they were less likely to vote for the ANC if President Jacob Zuma remained in his position until the 2019 elections – while 485 said they would still vote for the party even with Zuma still in charge.<\/p>\n
Political analyst Ralph Mathekga said voters were extremely complex in how they arrive at the decisions they take during elections, adding that not enough work was being done to understand the group.<\/p>\n
\u201cSouth Africa\u2019s voters are complicated and sometimes we don\u2019t do the deep work to understand them,” he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe make the mistake of taking voters simply at face value. For instance, observations are often made that the opposition is gaining traction at the expense of the ANC but actually, the ANC is not always losing votes directly to the opposition. Voters just stay away,\u201d said Mathekga.<\/p>\n