South Africa: Early results indicate ANC losing majority in election

Partial results from South Africa's national election indicated that the African National Congress was on way to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years, marking the most dramatic political shift since the end of apartheid.

With results in from 11.3% of polling stations, the ANC's share of the vote in Wednesday's election stood at 42.8%, with the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) on 25.6% and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on 8.3%, revealeddata from the electoral commission.

If the final results mirror the early indications, the ANC would be compelled to form a coalition with one or more parties to govern, potentially leading to unprecedented political volatility in the coming weeks or months.

The South African rand fell 1% against the US dollar in early Johannesburg trade on Thursday (May 30), hitting its weakest in four weeks.

As the early results predicted, the ANC is projected to have roughly 42% of the vote when the count is over, according to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research which was providing projections to the state broadcaster SABC.

In 2019 elections, the ANC won 57.5% of the vote, while 20.8% went toDA and 10.8% toEFF, on a turnout of 66%registered voters.

South AfricaElections: Will this be the ANC's 30 year rule?

Under South Africa's constitution, the newly elected National Assembly will elect the next president.
ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to remain as the country's president, although a poor showing could make him vulnerable to a leadership challenge from within party ranks.

The ANC has secured victory in every national election held every five years since the landmark 1994 election, which marked the end of apartheid and Nelson Mandela's ascent to the presidency.

But since then, the ANC's support has declined because of disillusionment over issues such as high unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption.

The Zuma Factor

In KwaZulu-Natal, a populous eastern province, a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), was performing strongly, with 42.3% of the vote versus 20.1% for the ANC.

It may be noted here, Zuma was asked to quit as president in 2018 after a series of scandals and has since fallen out with the ANC leadership.

As per the law, the electoral commission has seven days to declare full results, but in practice it is usually faster than that. In the last election, in 2019, voting took place on a Wednesday like this year and final results came on the Saturday.

The new parliament must convene within 14 days of final results being declared and its first act must be to elect the nation's president.

(With inputs from agencies)