South African general election, 2009

Infobox Election
election_name = South African general election, 2009
country = South Africa
type = parliamentary
ongoing = yes
previous_election = South African general election, 2004
previous_year = 2004
next_election =
next_year =
seats_for_election = All 400 seats to the The National Assembly of South Africa
election_date = 2009

leader1 = Jacob Zuma
party1 = African National Congress
leaders_seat1 = National (Party-list)
last_election1 =
seats1 =
seat_change1 =
popular_vote1 =
percentage1 =
swing1 =

leader2 = Helen Zille
party2 = Democratic Alliance (South Africa)
leaders_seat2 = National (Party list)
last_election2 =
seats2 =
seat_change2 =
popular_vote2 =
percentage2 =
swing2 =

title = President
before_election =
before_party =
after_election =
after_party =

Sometime between April and June 2009 South Africa will hold national elections to elect a new National Assembly. President Kgalema Motlanthe will proclame a date for the election which according to the South African Constitution must be held within 90 days of the expiry of the term of the current National Assembly. The current National Assembly was elected 14 April 2004, its 5 year term therefore expires 14th April 2009.

As South Africa has an executive President elected by the National Assembly, the election will also indirectly determine the future president of the country.

These will be the fourth general elections held since the end of the apartheid era. The South African National Assembly consists of 400 members, elected by proportional representation. Two hundred members are elected from national party lists, the other 200 are elected from party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa is chosen by the National Assembly after each election.

Also, the provincial governments will hold elections concurrently, with the premiers of each province being designated by and from the winning majority in each provincial legislature.

Current developments

African National Congress - ruling party

Former President Thabo Mbeki resigned as president of the country on September 20, 2008, following a statement by the NEC of the African National Congress that he would be recalled. Mbeki was defeated in an election for the party presidency at the Polokwane Conference on 18 December 2007. On 25 September the deputy president of the ANC, Kgalema Motlanthe, was elected new President by the National Assembly. However, at present he is not the presidential candidate of the ANC for the next general elections, this is scheduled to be the current President of the ANC, Jacob Zuma. [http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=./ancdocs/pr/2008/pr0108.html (Statement of the ANC National Executive Committee, 8 January 2008.) The ANC National Executive Committee confirmed that "the ANC President will lead the ANC election campaign as the organisation's candidate for president of South Africa in the 2009 election."] Zuma's victory in that internal party election (by a delegate vote of 2329 to 1505) [http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/pr/2007/pr1219.html (Press Statement: Results for the Election of ANC Officials, 19 December 2007)] was partly due to the wide degree of support for him from the ANC Youth League and COSATU since charges of rape against him were dropped in 2006.

Opposition

Democratic Alliance

The current opposition party in Parliament, the Democratic Alliance, currently leads a coalition government in the City of Cape Town, where the national leader of the party, Helen Zille, is the mayor. The DA, which leads the opposition in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, could stand to gain from the majority ANC's internal reshufflings, which saw the provincial Premier Ebrahim Rasool replaced with Lynne Brown by the National Executive Committee in August 2008.

Joe Seremane was put forward by the DA as a presidential candidate when the National Assembly elected a new President following the resignation of Mbeki. He received 50 votes, as opposed to the 269 cast for the winning Motlanthe. Seremane, the founding federal chairman of the DA since 2000 and a former member of the Pan African Congress, is 70 years old and is both one of the few well-known black members of the party and one of the few male leaders of the party. The Democratic Alliance has still not declared a presidential candidate for the 2009 general elections.

Other parties

The 2009 election will also see a different political atmosphere, as the New National Party, which inherited much of the National Party's legacy and competed in the 2004 general election, merged into the ANC in 2005 via the floor crossing legislation.

Political Parties and possible presidential candidates
* African National Congress (ANC) - Kgalema Motlanthe
* Democratic Alliance (DA) - Helen Zille, Joe Seremane
* Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Mangosuthu Buthelezi
* United Democratic Movement (UDM) - Bantu Holomisa
* Independent Democrats (ID) Patricia de Lille
* National Party of South Africa (NPSA) Juan-Duval Uys
* African Christian Democratic Party - Kenneth Meshoe
* Freedom Front Plus (FF+) Pieter Mulder
* United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP)
* Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) Motsoko Pheko
* Minority Front (MF) Amichand Rajbansi
* Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO) Mosibudi Mangena
* Christian Democratic Party (CDP) Ra Du Plooy
* National Action (South Africa) (NA) Jacobus Frederick Jonker
* Peace and Justice Congress (PJC)
* Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA)

Possible issues

* Continued poor service delivery.

* Unemployment.

* Deteriorating public health system.

* Jacob Zuma's corruption case involving French arms manufacturer, Thint.

* ANC's attempted removal of the Scorpions (South Africa's organised crime prevention unit) for investigations into corruption within the presidency.

* Access to government-subsided housing.

* Steadily increasing divide between rich and poor.

* Crime in South Africa and the decay of the criminal justice system.

* Access to HIV/AIDS drugs.

* Current power crisis, as an indication of the breakdown of national utilities and key infrastructure.

* Improved access to further education and training programmes.

* BEE, affirmative action policies, "reverse racism" and ethnic equality creating push emigration on the country's minorities and the resulting "brain drain".

* Land reform.

* 2010 FIFA World Cup.

* Zimbabwe Crisis.

References

ee also

* South African municipal election, 2012