South African general election, 2009

South African general election, 2009

← 2004 22 April 2009 2014 →
All 400 seats to the National Assembly of South Africa
First party Second party   Leader Jacob Zuma Helen Zille Party African National Congress Democratic Alliance Last election 279 seats, 69.69% 50 seats, 12.37% Seats before 297 47 Seats won 264 67 Seat change 33 20 Popular vote 11,650,748 2,945,829 Percentage 65.90% 16.66% Swing 3.79% 4.29%   Third party Fourth party   Leader Mosiuoa Lekota Mangosuthu Buthelezi Party Congress of the People Inkatha Freedom Party Last election n/a 28 seats, 6.97% Seats before new party 34 Seats won 30 18 Seat change 30 16 Popular vote 1,311,027 804,260 Percentage 7.42% 4.55% Swing 7.42% 2.42%
Voting districts won by each party. Green: African National Congress; Blue: Democratic Alliance; Yellow: Congress of the People; Red: Inkatha Freedom Party; Orange: Independent Democrats; Purple: United Democratic Movement; Brown: other parties; Grey: tied between two or more parties.
President before election Kgalema Motlanthe African National Congress Elected President Jacob Zuma African National Congress

Kgalema Motlanthe
African National Congress

Jacob Zuma
African National Congress

South Africa held national and provincial elections to elect a new National Assembly as well as the provincial legislature in each province on 22 April 2009.

The National Assembly consists of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list approach. Two hundred members are elected from national party lists; the other 200 are elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces. The President of South Africa is chosen by the National Assembly after each election; in 2009, the presidential election was on 6 May. The premiers of each province are chosen by the winning majority in each provincial legislature.

This was the fourth general election held since the end of the apartheid era.

The North Gauteng High Court ruled on 9 February 2009 that South African citizens living abroad should be allowed to vote in elections. The judgment was confirmed by the Constitutional Court on 12 March 2009, when it decided that overseas voters who were already registered would be allowed to vote. Also, registered voters who found themselves outside their registered voting districts on election day were permitted to vote for the national ballot at any voting station in South Africa.

The African National Congress was the ruling party in parliament going into the 2009 elections, having won 69.69% of the vote at the 2004 elections. During its term in office a number of internal changes occurred, the primary one being the election of Jacob Zuma to the party presidency ahead of Thabo Mbeki at the 52nd National Conference of the African National Congress held on 18 December 2007. Zuma's victory in the election was partly due to the wide degree of support for him from the ANC Youth League, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.