The ANC party, which liberated South Africa from apartheid, lost the absolute majority it had held for 30 years in a historic election.
The African National Congress (ANC) has lost its parliamentary majority in historic elections that set South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system 30 years ago.
With more than 99% of votes counted, the ANC received just over 40% in Wednesday’s election, a far cry from the majority it has held since the famous 1994 interracial vote that ended apartheid and brought him to power under Nelson Mandela. The final results have yet to be officially declared by the independent electoral commission which organized the election, but the ANC cannot exceed 50%.
While opposition parties hailed the result as a breakthrough for a country battling deep poverty and inequality, the ANC remained the largest party by far. However, he will likely have to seek one or more coalition partners to remain in government and re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final term. Parliament elects the South African president following national elections.
“The way to save South Africa is to break the majority of the ANC and that is what we did”declared the main opposition leader, John Steenhuisen.
The path forward promises to be complicated for Africa’s most advanced economy, and there is no coalition on the table yet.
Mr Steenhuisen’s party, the Democratic Alliance, received around 21% of the vote. Former president Jacob Zuma’s new MK party, which turned against the ANC he once led, came third, with just over 14 percent of the vote, in the first election in which it participates. The Economic Freedom Fighters are in fourth place with just over 9%.
More than 50 parties participated in the election, many of them with tiny vote shares, but the DA and MK seem to be the obvious ones for the ANC to approach, given its distance from the majority. Coalition building must happen quickly, as Parliament must sit and elect a president within 14 days of the official proclamation of the final election results. A multitude of negotiations will take place and they are likely to be complicated.
Mr Steenhuisen said his centrist party was open to discussions. The MK party said one of its conditions for any deal was that Mr Ramaphosa be removed as ANC leader and president. It underscored the fierce political battle between Zuma, who resigned as South African president under a cloud of corruption allegations in 2018, and Ramaphosa, who replaced him.