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Blackburn Fan
"The ANC remains the party of choice for voters, but a closer relationship between the ID, DA and COPE would be good for the country's political health.
The ANC remains the party of choice for voters, but a closer relationship between the ID, DA and Cope would be good for the country's political health, according to the results of an Ipsos Markinor survey released on Wednesday.
The poll, conducted among 3386 people in May, showed that if an election were held tomorrow, the African National Congress would gain a two-thirds majority, but the Congress of the People and the Inkatha Freedom Party would not do as well.
"The poll shows the continued one-party dominance by the ANC as they attract a two-thirds majority, this despite a five percent drop off of support from December 2009," the statement read.
They interpreted the results to also confirm the need for opposition co-operation ahead of the 2011 local elections as smaller opposition parties like Cope and the IFP continue to lose support.
The Independent Democrats and the United Democratic Movement were still attracting less than one percent of the vote, according to the survey.
The question posed was which party the person surveyed would vote for if national elections were held "tomorrow".
Although the ANC still came out tops, with the thumbs up from 66 percent of those surveyed, this was a drop from the 71 percent of the vote they would have received if an election had been held at the end of 2009.
They received just short of 66 percent at last year's election.
Support for the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, remained around the 12 to 13 percent mark, after winning 16.6 percent in the 2009 election.
Their core support between elections seems to hover at around 13 percent, and appeared stable.
The troubled Cope, formed by a group of disgruntled ANC veterans who broke away in a "divorce", won 7.42 percent of the April 2009 vote but since then support among those surveyed has dropped to 3.6 percent as the party slugs it out in court over leadership disagreements.
The IFP attracted around 1.8 percent of the vote in the May survey, after winning 4.5 percent of the vote in the April 2009 election.
The company noted that the results of by-elections posted on the Independent Electoral Commission's website on July 22, confirm the ANC's electoral dominance as the party won 19 of 26 wards contested across the country.
The DA won four wards and consolidated its strong position in the Western Cape and the IFP won three wards.
The analysts said that of the parties which currently attract more than three percent of eligible voters, the DA seemed to attract a more racially diverse support group.
However, the party needed to bolster its youth support ahead of next year's local elections, as it tended to appeal to older voters and youths were known not to pay much attention to local elections.
This was unlike the ANC which had support across the age groups.
DA supporters were still 51.4% white, with coloured South Africans making up almost one-third (31.5 percent) and black South Africans a tenth (9.9 percent), according to the survey.
Supporters of the ANC and Cope are overwhelmingly black.
Cope has a small percentage of white and coloured support, around 10% each.
"The ANC continues to monopolise voter sentiment while the DA consolidates its position as the most effective opposition party in the current political scenario," Ipsos Markinor commented, saying the proposed co-operation between the DA and ID, and possibly other opposition parties, was good news for the health of opposition politics in South Africa."
Wonder how much a coalition would do ?
The ANC remains the party of choice for voters, but a closer relationship between the ID, DA and Cope would be good for the country's political health, according to the results of an Ipsos Markinor survey released on Wednesday.
The poll, conducted among 3386 people in May, showed that if an election were held tomorrow, the African National Congress would gain a two-thirds majority, but the Congress of the People and the Inkatha Freedom Party would not do as well.
"The poll shows the continued one-party dominance by the ANC as they attract a two-thirds majority, this despite a five percent drop off of support from December 2009," the statement read.
They interpreted the results to also confirm the need for opposition co-operation ahead of the 2011 local elections as smaller opposition parties like Cope and the IFP continue to lose support.
The Independent Democrats and the United Democratic Movement were still attracting less than one percent of the vote, according to the survey.
The question posed was which party the person surveyed would vote for if national elections were held "tomorrow".
Although the ANC still came out tops, with the thumbs up from 66 percent of those surveyed, this was a drop from the 71 percent of the vote they would have received if an election had been held at the end of 2009.
They received just short of 66 percent at last year's election.
Support for the official opposition, the Democratic Alliance, remained around the 12 to 13 percent mark, after winning 16.6 percent in the 2009 election.
Their core support between elections seems to hover at around 13 percent, and appeared stable.
The troubled Cope, formed by a group of disgruntled ANC veterans who broke away in a "divorce", won 7.42 percent of the April 2009 vote but since then support among those surveyed has dropped to 3.6 percent as the party slugs it out in court over leadership disagreements.
The IFP attracted around 1.8 percent of the vote in the May survey, after winning 4.5 percent of the vote in the April 2009 election.
The company noted that the results of by-elections posted on the Independent Electoral Commission's website on July 22, confirm the ANC's electoral dominance as the party won 19 of 26 wards contested across the country.
The DA won four wards and consolidated its strong position in the Western Cape and the IFP won three wards.
The analysts said that of the parties which currently attract more than three percent of eligible voters, the DA seemed to attract a more racially diverse support group.
However, the party needed to bolster its youth support ahead of next year's local elections, as it tended to appeal to older voters and youths were known not to pay much attention to local elections.
This was unlike the ANC which had support across the age groups.
DA supporters were still 51.4% white, with coloured South Africans making up almost one-third (31.5 percent) and black South Africans a tenth (9.9 percent), according to the survey.
Supporters of the ANC and Cope are overwhelmingly black.
Cope has a small percentage of white and coloured support, around 10% each.
"The ANC continues to monopolise voter sentiment while the DA consolidates its position as the most effective opposition party in the current political scenario," Ipsos Markinor commented, saying the proposed co-operation between the DA and ID, and possibly other opposition parties, was good news for the health of opposition politics in South Africa."
Wonder how much a coalition would do ?
