Mahikeng - New political parties are divided over the issue of voter confidence and their ability to garner significant support in their first bite at the general elections on Wednesday as they await the results.
The African Transformation Movement (ATM) said on Thursday that it did not think voters would support new parties.
"The electorate tend not to trust new parties, but we are happy with what is appearing on the scoreboard. This is a solid foundation to build the party on," ATM provincial spokesperson Kagiso Monyadiwa said.
He said they were confident the party would win a seat in other provincial legislatures although it might not win a seat in North West. He added that the party ran its election campaign with limited resources but that they was happy with its performance.
"We are going to identify the people who have voted for us. Our membership is not concentrated in a particular area or municipality instead they are scattered all over the province," he said.
Meanwhile African Content Movement (ACM) said it strongly believe that voters trust new parties. "I believe the voters have trust in ACM, the support we have starting from the special votes," provincial spokesperson Paul Moyo said.
"We did very well in Bojanala District and in other [three] districts our numbers are good."
He said their last rally in Free State swayed voters to them. ACM was founded by the controversial former South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) chief operating officer Hlaudi Motsoeneng, in December 2018 with grand designs to address poverty, land, unemployment and education.
New parties contesting the election for the first time included Socialist Revolutionary Worker's Party led by unionist Irvin Jim, Black First Land First led by Andile Mngxitama.
Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) led by Mbahare Kekana contested the municipal election in 2016.