Politics
The municipal council consists of fifteen members elected by mixed-member proportional representation. Eight councillors are elected by first-past-the-post voting in eight 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 obtained a majority; the Democratic Alliance (DA) took seven seats, the African National Congress took six, and the Congress of the People (COPE) and Civic Independent took one each. The DA and COPE formed a coalition to govern the municipality.
The following table shows the results of the 2011 election.
| Party | Votes | Vote % | Seats | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ward | List | Total | ||||
| Democratic Alliance | 18,859 | 47.4 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
| African National Congress | 16,098 | 40.5 | 4 | 2 | 6 | |
| Congress of the People | 2,631 | 6.6 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Civic Independent | 1,925 | 4.8 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| South African Progressive Civic Organisation | 233 | 0.6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| National Independent Civic Organisation | 31 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Total | 39,777 | 100.0 | 8 | 7 | 15 | |
| Spoilt votes | 302 | |||||
The local council sends two representatives to the council of the Eden District Municipality: one from the Democratic Alliance and one from the African National Congress.
Read more about this topic: Hessequa Local Municipality
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“If politics is the art of the possible, research is surely the art of the soluble. Both are immensely practical-minded affairs.”
—Peter B. Medawar (1915–1987)
“Politics begin where the masses are, not where there are thousands, but where there are millions, that is where serious politics begin.”
—Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870–1924)
“Europe has a set of primary interests, which to us have none, or a very remote relation. Hence she must be engaged in frequent controversies, the causes of which are essentially foreign to our concerns. Hence, therefore, it must be unwise in us to implicate ourselves, by artificial ties, in the ordinary vicissitudes of her politics or the ordinary combinations and collisions of her friendships or enmities.”
—George Washington (1732–1799)