Politics
The municipal council consists of sixty-one members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Thirty-one councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in thirty-one wards, while the remaining thirty are chosen from party lists so that the total number of party representatives is proportional to the number of votes received. In the election of 18 May 2011 the Democratic Alliance (DA) obtained a majority of thirty-five seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the 2011 election.
| Party | Votes | Vote % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward | List | Total | ||||
| Democratic Alliance | 84,535 | 56.9 | 22 | 13 | 35 | |
| African National Congress | 45,818 | 30.8 | 9 | 10 | 19 | |
| National People's Party | 5,524 | 3.7 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Congress of the People | 4,640 | 3.1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Independent | 1,743 | 1.2 | 0 | – | 0 | |
| African Christian Democratic Party | 1,480 | 1.0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| South African Progressive Civic Organisation | 1,066 | 0.7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| People's Democratic Movement | 1,010 | 0.7 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| United Christian Democratic Party | 612 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Khoisan Party | 560 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Democratic Christian Party | 514 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Freedom Front Plus | 512 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| African Bond of Unity | 266 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Western Cape Community | 206 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| National Independent Civic Organisation | 146 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 148,632 | 100.0 | 31 | 30 | 61 | |
| Spoilt votes | 206 | |||||
The local council sends eight representatives to the council of the Cape Winelands District Municipality: five from the Democratic Alliance and three from the African National Congress.
Read more about this topic: Drakenstein Local Municipality
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“... privacy is ... connected to a politics of domination.”
—bell hooks (b. 1955)
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“In politics people give you what they think you deserve and deny you what they think you want.”
—Cecil Parkinson (b. 1932)