South Africa is facing a turning point. Nelson Mandela’s former party ruled alone for exactly 30 years. Now it is losing its absolute majority – by a landslide.
The South African electoral authority will announce the final result of the parliamentary elections on Sunday evening. The authority has received 100 percent of the votes counted, said the chairman of the electoral authority, Mosotho Moepya, during a press conference. However, objections are still being examined, which is why the results could still be slightly delayed. However, the first loss of the absolute majority for the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), after three decades in power can no longer be averted. After 99.87 percent of the votes had been counted, the ANC had 40.19 percent, as could be seen on the electoral authority’s website.
The former party of anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela will have to form a coalition for the first time. In the past 30 years, since the beginning of democracy in 1994, the ANC has always won an absolute majority and ruled the continent’s strongest economy alone.
According to the preliminary partial results, the economically liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) received 21.8 percent, while the party founded just six months ago by former President Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), received 14.58 percent. The Marxist-influenced Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party followed closely behind with 9.5 percent.
Members of 52 parties competed for the 400 seats in the national parliament in the election on May 29. After the results are announced, the newly elected parliament must form a government and elect a president within 14 days.
Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
