In 2008, Afrobarometer research conducted a few months after the ANC elected its new president in Polokwane revealed that a Western Cape voter puts a higher premium on what the ANC is doing nationally as a basis of their vote than on what the ANC in the Western Cape is doing or not doing.
By the end of 2008, 60% of the South African electorate indicated that they felt close to a political party. The Western Cape was the only province where less than half (48%) of the respondents said they felt close to a political party compared to more than 70% in the Free State. This meant that more than half of Western Cape voters make their decisions according to what is presented before them and not according to party affiliation per se.
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