FF Plus says DA owes other parties an apology for saying people waste their votes if they vote for smaller parties

25 July 2016 

The DA’s chairperson, James Selfe, misleads voters about the 2011 results of the Kouga municipality. He is using it as an example for the justification of their misleading campaign in which the party states that voters waste and divide their vote when they vote for other smaller parties, Dr. Pieter Groenewald (MP), chairperson of the FF Plus says.

Dr. Groenewald says Selfe alleges that the FF Plus and other parties in the Kouga municipality had caused the ANC to be control of the municipality, and this is not true as it was the independent candidate which stood in the election that resulted in the ANC taking control of the municipality.

“The independent candidate, who did not win the ward, gained 1 129 votes. The electoral system’s voting formula determines that these votes are lost and are not added as is the case with political parties. The result of this is that the quota is less, which advantaged the ANC.

“If the independent candidate had stood as member of a political party, the quota would have changed and the ANC would have had 14 seats, the DA 14 seats and the independent candidate’s party would have won one seat. This would have given the opposition a majority of one seat.

“The correct campaign of the DA should then be to say that you waste and divide your vote if you vote for an independent candidate. The mere changing of the independent candidate to a political party, would have kept the ANC from governing. Other opposition parties would have been able to defeat the ANC and would not have wasted or divided the votes of voters had they voted for a smaller party.

“The DA should stop misleading voters and the DA owes other parties an apology,” Dr. Groenewald said.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus Chairperson, 25 July 2016