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S. African ruling party outlines local gov't election goals

Xinhua, August 1, 2016 Adjust font size:

The key objectives of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in the upcoming local government elections are to win the majority seats in all municipalities where the ANC currently governs, ANC Secretary General Gwede Mantashe said on Monday.

The second objective is to improve support for the ANC where the party is in opposition, Mantashe said in a statement on the state of readiness for the elections, scheduled for August 3.

The ANC will be contesting almost all of the total of 4,392 wards in all 213 municipalities.

"We have entered the final push; Our structures and all our supporters are urged to ensure that we go door to door on the August 3 to encourage all our people to go out and cast their vote," said Mantashe.

The ANC has organised transportation at various pick-up points where voting stations are located far from where people reside.

The ANC, Mantashe said, is going into the elections after waging a very successful and positive successful election campaign.

ANC officials have crisscrossed the length and breadth of the country, going to every community -- rural and urban, rich and poor, he said.

The 2016 local government elections are heralded by many as being the most contested since 1994.

The ANC could probably lose control of three more major cities -- Pretoria, Johannesburg and the Nelson Mandela Bay --in the elections, according to the latest Ipsos opinion polls.

Despite this, the ANC has vowed to take over the strategic metropolis of Cape Town from the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA).

The ANC controls most of the country's municipalities. But the party's influence has been weakened by graft scandals and growing public discontent over poor service deliveries.

"The ANC continues to approach each election with a singular objective -- to win based on the confidence our people have in the work of the ANC," Mantashe said.

He recommitted the ANC to the Electoral Code of Conduct, and called on all ANC members and supporters to ensure that they abide by its regulations.

"Members who break the code may be subjected to the ANC disciplinary processes ad we urge all our members to resist any provocation under any circumstance," he said. Enditem