Politics
The municipal council consists of thirteen members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Seven councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in seven wards, while the remaining six 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 African National Congress won a majority of seven seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the 2011 election.
| Party | Votes | Vote % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward | List | Total | ||||
| African National Congress | 15,608 | 50.2 | 6 | 1 | 7 | |
| Democratic Alliance | 12,756 | 41.0 | 1 | 4 | 5 | |
| Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa | 1,331 | 4.3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Congress of the People | 843 | 2.7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| National People's Party | 378 | 1.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Independent Congress | 121 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| South African Progressive Civic Organisation | 71 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 31,108 | 100.0 | 7 | 6 | 13 | |
| Spoilt votes | 600 | |||||
The local council sends five representatives to the council of the Central Karoo District Municipality: three from the African National Congress and two from the Democratic Alliance.
Read more about this topic: Beaufort West Local Municipality
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“Hardly a man in the world has an opinion upon morals, politics or religion which he got otherwise than through his associations and sympathies. Broadly speaking, there are none but corn-pone opinions. And broadly speaking, Corn-Pone stands for Self- Approval. Self-approval is acquired mainly from the approval of other people. The result is Conformity.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“I am in politics because of the conflict between good and evil, and I believe that in the end good will triumph.”
—Margaret Thatcher (b. 1925)
“We are naïve and moralistic women. We are human beings. Who find politics a blight upon the human condition. And do not know how one copes with it except through politics.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)