Nats fall flat
2004-04-15 12:16
Pretoria - The Independent Democrats, contesting their first election on Wednesday, surpassed the long-established New National Party in early poll counts on Thursday morning.
By 10:30 the ID had garnered 123 292 votes or 2.24% of the votes counted, putting them in fourth place. The NNP was in fifth place with 121 928 votes, or 2.21%.
The New National Party led by outgoing Western Cape Premier Marthinus van Schalkwyk appears to be the biggest loser so far in the election - having achieved nearly 7% in the last national election, I-Net Bridge remarked.
Free State
The NNP appeared also to have lost ground in the Free State with some of its white voters moving to the Democratic Alliance, the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) and the African National Congress.
"We can't deny that. It is a fact," said Free State NNP leader Innes Aucamp.
By 11:00, with the ANC leading with 229 481 votes, the NNP at 3 204 votes was a straggler behind the DA's 36 966 and the FF+'s 11 435.
DA Free State leader Andries Botha said the NNP decline had been predicted by his party before the elections.
Aucamp said there could be many reasons for the NNP's decline, but the DA's continued claim during its campaign that a vote for the NNP was a vote for the ANC because of the ANC NNP alliance was a factor.
"Voters were not clear how the co-operation would work," he said.
Botha said the DA's assertion that if a voter voted for the NNP he or she was voting for the ANC was true.
"It's not because we said so, it's because it is so."
Botha said nothing would be able to stop the NNP's decline and this "was a good thing".
Western Cape
With a third of the votes cast in the Western Cape counted by 11:30, the ANC had pocketed 40.49% of the ballots.
The DA, which was hoping to gain control of the province, held 32.13%.
The New National Party had 9.66%, and election newcomers, the Independent Democrats, 8.36%.
ANC provincial leader and premier candidate Ebrahim Rasool said he had learned from experience to remain humble.
"Experience has taught us to be humble, but the Holy Grail of 51% is in sight hopefully," he said. - Sapa/I-Net Bridge