Kikwete optimistic about peace as South Africans vote
Dar es Salaam. Former Tanzania President Jakaya Kikwete (2005-15) expressed optimism that South Africa would remain peaceful during and after this year’s elections.
He is leading the African Union Election Observer Mission to South Africa’s sixth elections post the country’s apartheid government system beginning with the 1994 elections.
South African went to the polls yesterday, with 48 political parties contesting the elections which were conducted to choose a new National Assembly and provincial legislatures for the nine administrative provinces.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC) which has won every parliamentary election since the end of white minority rule in 1994, is projected to win a majority of the 400 seats in the National Assembly. However, analysts predict that ANC’s margin of victory will fall.
According to Reuters, the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA) and radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) were the main challenges.
Mr Kikwete addressed lawmakers during a courtesy call at the Pan-African Parliament (PAP) in Midrand, and commended South Africans for competing in peace, saying it should be a lesson for other countries.
He was quoted by South Africa’s Chronicle website () as saying, “One open observation which I have made is that, in a number of African countries before elections, there usually is tension, a lot of tension. This is my third election to observe after the election in Zambia and, most recently: in Nigeria. But there is no tension here, although there is stiff competition.”
Mr Kikwete said his team which is observing the elections in all parts of South Africa would produce its interim report on the country’s polls tomorrow, reported Chronicle.
The BBC reported concerns about voter apathy in this year’s elections, despite more than 26 million people registering to vote. However, this is said to be the highest number of registered voters in the country’s history.
Also, local surveys suggested that six million people under the age of 30 are not on the electoral roll.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, who came to power last year, pledged to get to grips with corruption. But, local reports suggest that some voters still associate his party, the ANC, with the corruption which thrived under his predecessor Jacob Zuma.
In this election, voters choose a party from a list on the ballot paper. The parties are then awarded seats in the 400-member National Assembly based their share of the total valid votes counted. MPs then elect the president.
