Cape Town - The DA and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) are going head to head in tomorrow’s Matzikama Municipality Ward 7, Vanrhynsdorp, by-election with both sides forecasting wins.
The DA is hoping Christo Boks, who won the seat on a PA ticket last November, will clinch the seat for them during the by-election.
Boks switched allegiance in May when he resigned from the PA to join the DA, sparking the by-election.
He will be pitted against three other candidates, Hazel Daniels (ANC); Desmond Pula (EFF) and Rodney Lakay who is the PA’s choice for the seat.
DA Western Cape Interim provincial leader Tertius Simmers said before Bok resigned he went back to the ward to consult voters.
“Their overwhelming response was to give their councillor a mandate to resign from the PA and to join the DA.”
However, PA spokesperson Mary Liebenberg said despite Boks’s defection, the party was hoping to recapture the seat.
“I think there’s a great possibility that we might win this election. The campaign work on the ground has been very tough, but in the last one month I think we have made a great impact even though it was a PA councillor’s resignation that caused the by-election.”
Western Cape Provincial Electoral officer Michael Hendrickse said the voter turnout for the ward during the November 2021 election was 58.7% and Bok who was then the PA candidate, won the ward with 26.9% of valid votes.
He said there were 4 313 registered voters in the ward and only registered voters who reside in Ward 7 would be eligible to cast their votes in the by-election.
Hendrickse said voters who applied for a special vote to vote at the voting station would cast their ballot at the voting station today between 8am and 5pm and that those voters approved for home visits will be visited by IEC staff during the same hours today when they cast their vote.
Hendrickse said “On Wednesday all voting stations will open at 7pm and close at 9pm. Any voter in a queue at 9pm will be allowed to cast their vote.”
He said all voters must vote at the voting station in the district in which they are registered and must be in possession of their green barcoded ID book, or a Smart Card ID, or a valid temporary ID certificate in order to vote.
Wednesday’s other municipal ward by-elections will take place in Eastern Cape’s King Sabata Dalindyebo and Nelson Mandela Bay municipalities and in Mpumalanga’s Chief Albert Luthuli Municipality.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za