Heading to the poll? Here’s who Mzansi is most likely to vote for today

As South Africans head to the polls this morning to vote in the local government elections, readers have shared their thought on who they are most likely to vote for.

The Electoral commission of SA (IEC) last month released a full list of independent and political party-affiliated candidates who will contest the elections nationally. The full list can be accessed here.

More than 12,400 candidates will contest the local government elections in the Western Cape alone. This number is 5,000 more than in 2016. 

The commission urged South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote.

“You may take your right to vote and all other rights in our constitution for granted, but 25 years ago most of the people in our country were not allowed to vote. Many of them were arrested and jailed for demanding this most basic human right,” said the IEC.

Political parties have spent the past few weeks trying to convince voters to put an X next to their name, with housing, electricity, jobs, immigration and service delivery high on the list.

DA leader John Steenhuisen urged voters to be “smart” and not give in to the temptation to vote for “fly-by-night” parties.

While Ramaphosa said the ANC had moved away from choosing councillors for people and the party is “no longer using the community as voting fodder”.

He urged voters to give the ruling party another shot and promised renewal of the ANC.

The EFF has taken shots at the ANC's inability to provide basics like water and working toilets in some areas and widespread electricity blackouts from load-shedding.

According to a recent poll conducted by the Institute of Race Relations, Ramaphosa is still the most popular political leader in the country and is more popular than the ANC.

TimesLIVE has been running its own poll, asking readers which party was most likely to get their vote.

More than 61,400 votes were cast by early Monday morning .

The margins are tight at the top, and at the time of writing the ANC (22.01%) was narrowly beating out the DA (21.65%). Newcomer ActionSA is also in the mix with 20.20% of the vote, while the EFF is polling fourth with 14.35%. A total of 10.51% of those who took part in the poll said no party was getting their vote.

Who will you vote for?