The African National Congress (ANC), which until these elections had an absolute majority in the South African Parliament, acknowledged this Sunday (2) that it has “nothing to celebrate”, after the announcement of the electoral result.
The ANC failed in the elections held on Wednesday (29), in which it lost its absolute majority in Parliament for the first time since the end of the apartheid regime. According to the electoral commission, the party to which Nelson Mandela belonged won just over 40% of the votes in this election and will have to negotiate with other parties in Parliament to keep the current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, in the South African Executive.
The ANC has already confirmed that Ramaphosa will remain at the head of the party and that he will talk to other parties, including that of former president Jacob Zuma (2009-2018), to try to reach agreements to form the new government.
At a press conference at the National Results Center of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), ANC spokesperson Fikile Mbalula acknowledged his party’s decline, which went from 57.50% in the 2019 elections to 40.20% , according to the official investigation that was released.
“We want to assure the people of South Africa that we heard them”, declared Mbalula, after stressing that his party continues to have more votes, with almost 20 points of advantage over the opposition Democratic Alliance (AD), of John Steenhuisen, which obtained 21.78% of the total.
Mbalula said he had received a “firm mandate” from the South African population and celebrated having achieved a “decisive majority” in five of the country’s nine provinces.
The ANC, which is going through its most complicated moment, is immersed in a process of renewal that will not stop after the elections, the spokesperson added.
It is the first time that Mandela’s party has not achieved an absolute majority since the first multiracial elections in South Africa.
ANC will not allow calls for Ramaphosa to step down as party leader
Despite the bad results, Mbalula guaranteed that the current leader of the ANC and president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, will remain at the head of the party, even if other parties establish his departure as a condition of negotiation.
“Ramaphosa is the president of the ANC. If they come to us with the demand that Ramaphosa resign as president, that will not happen […] The leaders’ task is to take command when the ship is about to sink,” he highlighted.
Finally, he added that they will not accept any party imposing such strong conditions on the ANC.
Open to “any agreement”
For the first time in 30 years, the ANC will have to negotiate with other parties to remain at the head of the Executive.
No party has said it will not speak to the ANC, nor has the ANC vetoed any formation, said Mbalula, who anticipated that they are already working internally on negotiations.
The ANC is expected to talk to uMkhonto weSizwe (MK Party), the new party of former president Zuma, who was sued by the ruling party for giving his public support to another organization while he was still a member of the ANC.
MK stormed into its first general elections with 14.60% of the vote and snatched third place from the left-wing extremist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), of Marxist leader Julius Malema, who before the elections stood out as the third political force in the country and fell to fourth place with 9.50% of the total.
The appearance of MK significantly influenced the division of the ANC’s votes, which was also shaken by cases of corruption such as those carried out by Zuma himself and worn down by the problems affecting the country, such as high unemployment, crime and electricity cuts.
A new government is expected to be formed in the coming days
It is expected that the National Assembly, the Parliament, now with its new 400 members, will meet in the coming weeks to define the country’s new leader who, in turn, will form the new government. Ramaphosa is seeking his second and final term as South African president.
The final vote count in these general elections gave the ANC 159 seats in the National Assembly. The right-wing opposition Democratic Alliance (AD) won 87 seats, while the Zuma-led MK won 58. The left-wing extremist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) took 39 seats. The remaining seats were occupied by several other parties and minority groups. (With EFE Agency)
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