‘Vote No’ campaign achieves its goal

JOHANNESBURG – The “Sidikiwe! Vukani! Vote No!” campaign realised its goal of preventing the ANC from getting a 66% majority, it said yesterday.

“Not only has this been achieved, but the ruling party was not even able to garner as many votes as it did in 2009, in fact they shed 213 827 votes and slid, as we know, to 62.15% of the counted vote,” one of the campaign’s leaders, Louise Colvin, said in a statement.

Former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge launched the campaign in April. They called on South Africans to either vote for a minority party, or spoil their ballots.

There were 251 960 spoilt votes, according to the Electoral Commission of SA’s (IEC) results. Colvin said this many votes would have secured between five and six seats in Parliament, placing it in sixth position. While the campaign did not claim to have single-handedly caused the decline in African National Congress support, is said it helped add fuel to the fire.

“Given our history and the deep seated loyalty South Africans have for the proud liberation movement, we believe these elections mark a turning point where voters are prepared to shift from voting for a party to voting to strengthen the opposition,” Colvin said.

– Nampa-Sapa