2006 South African municipal elections

2006 South African municipal elections

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All seats to the municipalities of South Africa
  First party Second party
 
SthAfrica.ThaboMbeki.01 (cropped2).jpg
TonyLeon.jpg
Leader Thabo Mbeki Tony Leon
Party ANC DA
Last election 59.39% 22.12%
Popular vote 12,783,813 3,203,896
Percentage 64.82% 16.24%
Swing Increase 5.43% Decrease 5.88%

  Third party Fourth party
 
Mangosuthu Buthelezi (1983).jpg
Patricia de Lille, March 2011.jpg
Leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi Patricia de Lille
Party IFP ID
Last election 9.14% did not contest
Popular vote 1,484,621 422,607
Percentage 7.53% 2.14%
Swing Decrease 1.61% Increase 2.14% (new)

Municipal elections were held in South Africa on 1 March 2006, to elect members to the local governing councils in the municipalities of South Africa. The municipalities form the local government of South Africa and are subdivisions of the provinces, thus making them responsible for local service delivery, such as electricity, water and fire services.

All major political parties, excepting the SACP who are members of the Tripartite alliance, fielded candidates in the election. The expected winner, the African National Congress (ANC) won the majority of seats nationwide, with 66.3% of the vote.[1] These elections were seen as a test of the ANC, after some discontent with the speed of the delivery of new services at the municipal level in South Africa. The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) took 14.8% of votes nationwide,[1] placing them in second overall. The Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party took 8.1% of the vote,[1] or third place, while the new party formed under the leadership of Patricia de Lille, the Independent Democrats took 2.0%, placing them fourth of all major political parties.[1]

However, because rural electors have an additional vote compared to urban voters (for district council), a fairer representation of popular party support is given by the percentage of proportional representation votes (excluding district council votes and ward votes) i.e. African National Congress (ANC) with 65.7% of the vote, the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 16.3% of votes nationwide, Inkatha Freedom Party with 7.6% of the vote and 2.2% for the Independent Democrats.