Karou Charou has last laugh with poll results
Thanasagren Moodley says the election results prove he is not a fly-by-night candidate.
Moodley, who is better known as Karou Charou, is the only independent candidate vying for a seat in the KZN legislature.
By late Friday afternoon, he had managed to secure over 5,000 votes in the province, ahead of parties like the Patriotic Alliance and ActionSA.
"My constituency and electorate feel that they are being let down by the current party that's supposedly giving their wards, and I think we need to have more accountable leadership. I want to form a party that is that we take over the councils."
He started his campaign two weeks into April.
READ: LISTEN: No joke: Karou Charou wants your vote as KZN’s only independent candidate
Better known as a stand-up comedian, he says he shouldn’t be underestimated.
He says that in the next elections, he hopes to have established a party.
"I have got 15 to 20 years of activism, and I have been on the ground and I am known as a people's person. So, I didn't need to campaign really hard in the area to convince people who I am. They already who I am. All they needed to know is that I am in politics."
Independent candidate, Thanasagren Moodley, speaking to the media at the KZN ROC, at the Durban ICC.
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He says possible coalitions are on the cards.
Moodley also plans to form a political party for the 2026 Local Government Elections. #SAElection2024 #ElectionResults pic.twitter.com/3sPAjjbptb
Meanwhile, some South Africans believe the country should move to electronic voting in the next elections.
The Human Sciences Research Council did a survey on the voting experience and released its findings on Friday.
"We did ask one relating to a preference for paper-based versus electronic voting. We asked voters, 'Would you support or oppose replacing paper ballots with electric voting machines at voting stations?' We analysed this by the time of day, but it was fairly invariant to the time of day," says the HSRC's Benjamin Roberts.
ALSO READ: Voter confidence in ballot count accuracy drops: HSRC
"What we found is that 29 per cent strongly supported moving to electronic voting. Round about half the public are in favour of moving to electronic voting."
Roberts says others prefer to keep using pen and paper to make their mark.
"Ten per cent were neutral, 21 per cent opposed, and 15 per cent strongly opposed. There is a fair amount of polarisation around paper-based versus electronic ballots as the future of elections in South Africa."
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