Nelspruit - The African National Congress lost support in Mpumalanga in the August 3 municipal elections because some of its leaders “erred while nominating councillor candidates before the polls”, the ANC in the province said on Sunday.
The ANC still got the most votes in Mpumalanga, but its support dropped to 70.74 percent from 78.03 percent in 2011.
Mpumalanga ANC spokesman Sibusiso Themba said the party was worried about the decline in its support.
“Some of our comrades made mistakes in the nomination of councillor candidates. In the townships there will always be factions if you make such mistakes. One faction will nominate one candidate and another faction will not vote if it does not accept that candidate. We have retained our 17 municipalities in the province but the drop of our voter support concerns us. We must deal with this problem,” he said.
Themba declined to provide full details of the mistakes he said were made by other ANC leaders in the nomination process.
Thousands of ANC members from various provinces staged a protest outside the ANC's Luthuli House headquarters in Johannesburg on June 2 over the candidates' lists.
Some members alleged the nomination processes in certain regions were flawed.
The ANC would do research and brainstorm ideas on how to woo back its voters.
The party did not even hold a single event to celebrate its victory on Saturday, due to the decline in its electoral support.
This was also because the ANC lost the Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane metros to the DA, Themba said.
African News Agency