George by-elections: Clear PA win, but let's look at the breakdown

GEORGE NEWS - The Patriotic Alliance (PA) won both by-elections held in George this week, beating the Democratic Alliance (DA) in Wards 17 and 27, according to official IEC results.

In Ward 17, the PA won by a large margin. PA candidate Raphael John Goeieman received 1 343 votes, which is almost 60% of all the votes cast.

The DA’s candidate, Marizaan Mentoor, came second with 848 votes.

This means the PA won the ward comfortably, especially in the bigger voting district where they received more than 1 000 votes.

Just over 54% of registered voters in Ward 17 went to the polls.

Other parties, including the ANC and the Truth and Solidarity Movement, received very few votes and did not play a major role in the outcome.

The race in Ward 27 was much closer, but the PA still came out on top. Marchell Kleynhans of the PA won the ward with 1 081 votes, while DA candidate Richard Hector received 1 018 votes.

The difference between the two parties was only 63 votes, showing how closely contested the ward was.

In Ward 27, the DA performed slightly better in one voting area, but the PA’s stronger support in the other area gave them the overall win. Voter turnout in the ward was just over 55%, similar to Ward 17.

Overall, the results show that the PA is gaining strong support in areas where the DA has traditionally been strong.

In Ward 17, the result shows a major change. In the previous election, the DA won the ward with 39.86% of the vote. In this by-election, the PA increased its support sharply, winning the ward with 59.98%.

This means the ward has moved from being DA-led to strongly PA-led, with a clear increase in voter support for the PA.

In Ward 27, the DA also performed worse than before. In the previous election, the DA won the ward with 36.20% of the vote. In the latest by-election, the PA took the ward with 51.35%, showing that more than half of the voters supported the PA this time around.

Even though the DA received less than 40% of the vote during the previous elections in both wards, it still won the wards because no other party received more votes at the time.

Overall, the comparison shows that support for the PA has grown strongly in both wards.