South Africa’s governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), to which Nelson Mandela belonged, won the general elections held on Wednesday (29) with 40% of the votes, but lost the absolute majority with which it governed the country since Mandela came to power in 1994, according to provisional results, with 99% of the votes counted.
According to the latest data from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the ANC achieved its worst result in 30 years, which will force the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, to close deals with other parties to achieve a second five-year term in Africa. South that is currently facing an increase in crime and unemployment.
It is the first time that the ANC – which obtained 57.5% of the vote in 2019 – has not achieved an absolute majority since the first multiracial elections in South Africa, following the end of the apartheid regime in 1994, when Mandela became the first black president of the country.
In second place in this election is John Steenhuisen’s Democratic Alliance (AD, center-right), with 21.63% of the votes, which would slightly improve its result from 2019, when it obtained 20.77%.
Third place is occupied by uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Party), the new party of former president Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), with 14.71%, whose participation significantly influenced the division of the ANC vote.
The Constitutional Court prevented Zuma – sentenced in 2021 to 15 months in prison for contempt – from participating in these elections in the middle of the campaign, but even so the party displaced Julius’ Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF, from the Marxist extreme left) from third place. Malema, who before the elections stood out as the third political force in the country and now appears in fourth place, with 9.39%.
Almost 28 million South Africans were called to the polls last Wednesday. The IEC put the provisional participation rate at 58.59%, down from 66% in 2019, despite palpable enthusiasm among the population.
South Africans decided between 70 parties and 11 independent candidates to elect the 400 members of the National Assembly (South Africa’s Parliament), who in turn must choose the president. In addition, they voted to define the authorities of the country’s nine provinces.
Although the electoral commission has seven days to announce the official results, their publication is scheduled to take place this Sunday (2).
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