The African National Congress may lose its 30-year parliamentary majority, according to provisional election results. South African voters punished the erstwhile liberation organisation after years of decline.
Nelson Mandela’s party may form a coalition with other parties, marking the first time it has shared power in the country since apartheid.
With results in from 29.5% of polling stations, the ANC’s share of the vote in Wednesday’s election stood at 42.5%. It won 57.5% of votes in the previous election in 2019.
“The ANC might have to consider forming an alliance with one of its major rivals in order to maintain its hold on power,” said Andrew Bahlmann, a senior executive at mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Deal Leaders International. Which party it might choose remained unclear.
The partial results released by the electoral commission put the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) on 25.1%, and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party on 9%.
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, was at 8.6% and eating into ANC support, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal – Zuma’s home province and a traditional stronghold of the ruling party.
“MK is the reason why the ANC is getting less than 50%,” said Oscar Van Heerden, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for African Diplomacy and Leadership at the University of Johannesburg.
The ANC has won every national election since a landmark 1994 vote ended white minority rule and brought Mandela to power.
But the last decade has seen the ANC wracked by repeated corruption scandals while South Africans have watched the economy stagnate, unemployment and poverty climb and infrastructure crumble, leading to regular power outages.
Pollsters and two of the country’s three main broadcasters predicted that the final results would confirm that the ANC had lost its majority.
Under South Africa’s proportional voting system, parties’ shares of the vote determine the number of seats they get in the National Assembly, which then elects the next president.
That could still be the party’s leader and incumbent President Cyril Ramaphosa. However, an embarrassing showing at the polls risks fuelling a leadership challenge. Reuters
