5 - The 2004 Campaigns

Summary

On April 15, 2004, South Africa held its third post-apartheid national elections, which the ruling ANC won by a wide margin, taking almost 70 percent of the total vote and winning outright majorities in seven out of nine provinces. In the remaining two provinces – the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal – it won pluralities and quickly formed governments with coalition partners. As in 1999, the Democratic Party (now the Democratic Alliance) captured the most votes (around 12 percent of the total) of any opposition party, increasing its size by about 3 percentage points from the earlier election. ANC and DA gains came at the expense of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which saw support dip from about 8.5 percent in 1999 to 7 percent in 2000, and, more spectacularly, the New National Party (NNP), whose support fell from around 7 percent to under 2 percent (even in the Western Cape, the NNP's support evaporated). Two somewhat odd pre-electoral coalitions – one between the ANC and the NNP and the other between the DA and the IFP – seemed only to strengthen the hands of the ANC and DA. In terms of the smaller opposition parties, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) fell under 3 percent of the overall vote and also lost ground on its home turf (the Eastern Cape).