South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), is on course to lose its majority in parliament for the first time since it came to power 30 years ago, partial results from Wednesday’s parliamentary election suggest.
With results from 57% of voting districts counted so far, the ANC is leading with 42%, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 23%.
The uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK Party) of former President Jacob Zuma has received 11% of the vote and the Economic Freedom Fighters party, nearly 10%.
Final results are expected over the weekend.
The online system streaming the election results crashed on Friday morning, leaving poll screens showing zero results.
South Africa’s electoral commission has apologised for the issue and later restored the service.
It said the poll results had not been compromised.
Many voters blame the ANC for the high levels of corruption, crime and unemployment in the country.
The respected Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the News24 website have projected that the party’s final vote will be around 42%, a big drop from the 57% it obtained in the 2019 election.
This would force it go into a coalition with one or more of the other parties in order to form a majority in parliament.
The DA has liberal economic policies, while both the EFF and MK favour more state intervention and nationalisation, so the choice of partner would make a huge difference to South Africa’s future direction.
It is unclear whether President Cyril Ramaphosa will remain in power, as he could come under pressure from the ANC to resign if the party gets less than 45% of the final vote, said Prof William Gumede, chairman of the non-profit Democracy Works Foundation.
“The ANC could turn him into a scapegoat, and a faction within the party could push for him to be replaced by his deputy, Paul Mashatile. The EFF and MK are also likely to demand his resignation before agreeing to any coalition with the ANC,” Prof Gumede told the BBC.
South Africans do not directly vote for a president. Instead they vote for members of parliament who will then go on to elect the president.
