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Partial results in the national assembly election put the long-ruling African National Congress party ahead Thursday (May. 30). However, with around 34% of votes counted by Thursday 6 PM UTC, it was still only an early picture after Wednesday’s vote.
South Africa’s Electoral Commission held a media briefing to give an update on vote counting after the country held its national election on Wednesday. The updates relate to Thursday when the counting was underway.
Sy Mamabolo, the Chief Electoral Officer said that counting procedures have now been concluded, with only a few voting stations reported to still be counting at around 3 PM on Thursday. Political analysts maintain that the final results of a vote could bring the biggest political shift in South Africa’s young democracy. Final results are expected by Sunday. Results of the poll had been concluded for 22.6% of the 23,292 voting district, which represents 2.3 million votes cast by 4 PM on Thursday.
Partial results in the national assembly election put the long-ruling African National Congress party ahead Thursday (May. 30). However, with around 34% of votes counted by Thursday 6 PM UTC, it was still only an early picture after Wednesday’s vote.
This is the first time the ruling ANC has faced the real possibility of losing power since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994. Speaking from Johannesburg on May 30, the party’s First Deputy Secretary General reckoned that partial results put the worst predictions to shame. He said everybody was looking at the ANC with 36% to 40%. But he insisted that ANC was going to surpass those worst predictions. The Democratic Alliance is in the lead in Western Cape. Newly founded MK party which is backed by former president Jacob Zuma is in the lead in Kwazulu-Natal.
Rival parties critiqued what they call the arrogance of the ANC, with Sihle Ngubane, the Secretary General of uMkhonto weSizwe party saying “economically, they failed.”
If no party secures the majority of votes, political parties will be forced to form coalitions to decide on who will be president under South Africa’s parliamentary system. Partial results in the provincial legislature give the ANC a comfortable majority. Nearly 28 million people out of South Africa’s population of 62 million were registered to take part in the election.
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The final result and seat allocation for the national assembly and provincial legislatures elections are announced by the Electoral Commission within 7days of the election.
