The ruling African National Congress may likely lose the parliamentary majority it has held since the end of apartheid, partial results from South Africa’s national election showed.
Should the final results confirm the loss of its majority, the ANC will be forced to form a coalition in what would be the most dramatic political shift for the past 30 years.
According to a report by Reuters, the results collated so far from the 16.7 percent of polling stations, the ruling party’s share of the vote in Wednesday’s election stood at 42.5 percent.
The pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) stands as the major opposition with 25.8 percent, the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party was on 8.5 percent.
Meanwhile, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma could only muster 8 percent of the people’s vote.
The Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party was on 8.5%, while uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, was snapping at its heels on 8%
“I don’t think it’s likely for the ANC to reach a majority,” Reza Omar of Citizen Surveys told Reuters, noting that while the picture would evolve, it was unlikely to change to that extent.
South African broadcaster eNCA projected that the ANC’s final score would land on the 45 percent mark while the DA would remain the largest opposition party on 21 percent.
“The ANC looks forward to a clear mandate from voters to continue the work of transforming South Africa and building a better life for all,” the party said in a statement.
Tessa Dooms, director of the Rivonia Circle think-tank in Johannesburg, told Reuters that the early results were skewed towards rural areas where she would have expected the ANC to be performing more strongly than it was.
“The rural vote comes in early and it’s always much smaller. The urban vote comes in quite late. I think this election will be a lot more contested in the urban areas,” she told Reuters at the results centre in Midrand, north of Johannesburg.
