Electoral Politics in South Africa, 1994–2004

Abstract

On 14 April, 2004, South Africans voted in their third democratic national and provincial elections. The exercise demonstrated that the institutionalization of democracy in South Africa was well under way and that politics were normalizing to an extent comparable to established democracies. In contrast to the politically tense and violent situation that attended the 1994 election, the 2004 electoral process was calm. Aside from a few incidents in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) province, there was little politically motivated violence and the remaining issues revolved around the technical aspects of electoral administration. To many South Africans, for whom the memories of the vibrant transition in 1994 were still fresh, electoral politics in 2004 seemed dull. One of the factors contributing to this seemingly unexciting electoral process was the fact that the probable outcome was known well before the first ballot had been cast. There was no doubt that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) would retain its position and dominate the next government. The main questions were: How large would be the ANC’s margin of victory? Would the ANC gain control over all nine provincial administrations? Would the opposition fragment or consolidate behind a few parties?KeywordsDemocratic PartyOpposition PartiAfrican National CongressOpposition PartyLarge PartyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.