South Africa Elections: ANC On Course To Lose Majority In Parliament
South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), is on course to lose its majority in parliament for the first time since it came to power in 1994, according to partial results from Wednesday’s parliamentary election, reported the BBC.
With results from 56% of voting districts released so far, the ANC is leading with 42%, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 24%.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) led by former President Jacob Zuma has received 11% of the vote and Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, nearly 10%.
Final results are expected over the weekend.
South Africa’s electoral commission’s (IEC) online system streaming the election results crashed on Friday morning, leaving poll screens showing zero results.
The IEC has apologised for the issue and later restored the service, saying the election results had not been compromised.
The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the News24 website have projected that the ANC’s final vote will be around 42%, a big drop from the 57% it obtained in the 2019 election.
This will force it to go into a coalition with one or more of the other parties to form a majority in parliament.
The main opposition, the DA has liberal economic policies, while both the EFF and MK favour more state intervention and nationalisation.
The chairman of the non-profit Democracy Works Foundation, Prof William Gumede, told BBC that President Cyril Ramaphosa could come under pressure from the ANC to resign if the party gets less than 45% of the final vote. He said:
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.
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 Zuma’s party, MK, has been leading in KwaZulu-Natal Province with 43% of the vote to the ANC’s 21%.
KwaZulu-Natal is the home region of Zuma and the province with the second-highest number of votes.
Although Zuma has been barred from running for parliament because of a conviction for contempt of court, his name still appeared on the ballot paper as MK leader.
According to Prof Gumede, if MK wins KwaZulu-Natal, it would be a “major upset” and herald the “potential decimation” of the ANC in the province.
The ANC also risks losing its majority in South Africa’s economic heartland, Gauteng Province, where the party currently has 36% to the DA’s 29%.
A record 70 parties and 11 independents participated in the election, with South Africans voting for a new parliament and nine provincial legislatures.
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