Anger will drive voters to the polls, but it may not keep them there
A former statistician-general warns the country is too angry for the election's timing, as analysts debate whether frustration can outlast the ballot box.
Anger is going to be a driving force at the polls in this local government election, and the bigger risk is that frustrated voters simply stay home, according to analysis carried on eNCA (YouTube).
The discussion followed a claim in the same studio by the former statistician-general Pali Lehohla, who argued that the timing of this election is bad because the country is angry. Lehohla said a national dialogue was supposed to have taken place, that social cohesion remains unresolved, and that the question of foreign nationals was meant to be dealt with there. That dialogue has not happened.
Put to a panel whether the country’s temperature changes how and whether people vote, the answer was that anger can move people to the ballot box but cannot hold a political project together on its own. The point made was that voters can vote against something, but a party, an institution or a candidate still has to stand for something. A coalition assembled out of anger, the argument went, tends to have a short lifespan without a programme of action behind it.
Brought back to South Africa, the assessment was that anger and frustration will drive turnout in this local government election, and that the fear is people giving up and not showing up at all.
The exchange leaves the practical question open. Anger may be enough to get South Africans to the voting station. Whether it is enough to keep them in the political process afterwards is the part nobody in the discussion claimed to know.
