2024 elections: With over 350 parties registered with IEC, voters are spoilt for choice
There has been a proliferation of new parties registering with the Electoral Commission, several of which are helmed by former political influencers who hope to woo disillusioned voters away from bigger parties.
Picture: Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - Voters look set to be spoilt for choice in the 2024 national and provincial elections, with over 350 parties currently registered with the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC).
Although this does not mean all of them will participate in the polls, there has been a proliferation of new parties registering, at least 27 of them, in the last quarter of 2023 alone.
Several of them have former political leaders and influencers at the helm, hoping to woo disillusioned voters away from bigger and more established parties.
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However, a University of Pretoria (UP) Political Sciences lecturer, Heather Thuynsma, said this doesn't necessarily mean voters are ready to take the leap.
“Although voters are clearly disillusioned with the political system, their response has been to withdraw from the process entirely, and you can see this in the declining turnout in recent elections. The new party trend, I think, is more about individual politicians than voters.”
Thuynsma added that in a constrained economy, the financial future of newcomer parties could also be in jeopardy.
“It takes a significant amount of resources to run a political campaign and with over 300 parties canvassing a very small pool of donors, it will be interesting to see just how many of them will be able to survive.”