Politics
The municipal council consists of eleven members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Six councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in six wards, while the remaining seven 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 no party won a majority on the council, with five seats going to the African National Congress (ANC), four to the Democratic Alliance (DA) and one each to the Congress of the People (COPE) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). The ANC formed a coalition with the PAC to govern the municipality. However, later in 2011 one DA ward councillor resigned from the party, triggering a by-election in which he stood for the ANC and won, giving the ANC an absolute majority of six seats on the council.
The following table shows the results of the 2011 election.
| Party | Votes | Vote % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward | List | Total | ||||
| African National Congress | 11,510 | 45.0 | 4 | 1 | 5 | |
| Democratic Alliance | 9,680 | 37.9 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |
| Congress of the People | 2,436 | 9.5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Pan Africanist Congress | 1,309 | 5.1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Independent | 510 | 2.0 | 0 | – | 0 | |
| The People's Independent Civic Organisation | 125 | 0.5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 25,570 | 100.00 | 6 | 5 | 11 | |
| Spoilt votes | 518 | |||||
The local council sends two representatives to the council of the West Coast District Municipality: one from the ANC and one from the DA.
Read more about this topic: Cederberg Local Municipality
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“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)
“...to many a mother’s heart has come the disappointment of a loss of power, a limitation of influence when early manhood takes the boy from the home, or when even before that time, in school, or where he touches the great world and begins to be bewildered with its controversies, trade and economics and politics make their imprint even while his lips are dewy with his mother’s kiss.”
—J. Ellen Foster (1840–1910)
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—Elaine Heffner (20th century)