South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is on course to lose its majority in parliament for the first time since it came to power 30 years ago, partial results from Wednesday’s parliamentary election suggest.
With results from more than 50% of voting districts counted so far, the ANC is leading with 42%, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 23%.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) of former President Jacob Zuma has received nearly 11% of the vote and the Economic Freedom Fighters party, nearly 10%.
Final results are expected over the weekend.
The online system streaming the election results crashed on Friday morning, leaving poll screens showing zero results.
South Africa’s electoral commission has apologised for the issue and said it was working to restore the service.
“The results system is still operational and local offices continue to capture results,” it added.
Many voters blame the ANC for the high levels of corruption, crime and unemployment in the country.
The respected Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the News24 website have projected that the party’s final vote will be around 42%, a big drop from the 57% it obtained in the 2019 election.
This would force it go into a coalition with one or more of the other parties in order to form a majority in parliament.
The DA has liberal economic policies, while both the EFF and MK favour more state intervention and nationalisation, so the choice of partner would make a huge difference to South Africa’s future direction.
It is unclear whether President Cyril Ramaphosa will remain in power, as he could come under pressure from the ANC to resign if the party gets less than 45% of the final vote, said Prof William Gumede, chairman of the non-profit Democracy Works Foundation.
“The ANC could turn him into a scapegoat, and a faction within the party could push for him to be replaced by his deputy, Paul Mashatile. The EFF and MK are also likely to demand his resignation before agreeing to any coalition with the ANC,” Prof Gumede told the BBC.
South Africans do not directly vote for a president. Instead they vote for members of parliament who will then go on to elect the president.
The initial results show that the ANC is suffering heavy losses to MK, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, where Mr Zuma’s party has been leading with 43% of the vote to the ANC’s 21%.
But Mr Hlekwane said he was optimistic that things would change.
Support for the ANC is expected to be higher among the older generation.
One 89-year-old woman, Elayne Dykman, told the BBC she hoped that young people in South Africa did not take their vote for granted.
A record 70 parties and 11 independents were running, with South Africans voting for a new parliament and nine provincial legislatures.
The DA has signed a pact with 10 of them, agreeing to form a coalition government if they get enough votes to dislodge the ANC from power.
But this is highly unlikely, with the ANC expected to remain the biggest party, putting it in pole position to lead a coalition.
Leave a Reply