South Africa, a major African nation, held its national elections on Wednesday (29th). If the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), loses its absolute majority as indicated by opinion polls, this election could mark a significant political shift.
According to reports from the Associated Press, this will be the seventh democratic election in the country since the end of apartheid in 1994. Back then, Nelson Mandela was elected president, and the ANC won 62.5% of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
Since then, the ANC has maintained a majority in parliament. In the previous election in 2019, the ANC only won 57.5% of the vote, its worst performance to date. Voter dissatisfaction with frequent power outages, high unemployment, crime rates, and internal corruption has led to a gradual decline in support for the ANC.
After winning the national elections six times in a row, some opinion polls suggest that the ANC’s support is below 50% for the first time before this election. While it is widely expected that the ANC will still have the most seats, it may lose its parliamentary majority for the first time.
Any change in power for the ANC could have significant implications for South Africa. If it loses its majority, the ANC may have to form a coalition government with other parties and allow Cyril Ramaphosa to continue as president. This situation has never occurred before, meaning that the ANC, in power for 30 years, will have to seek one or more alliance partners to govern the country.
Discontented voters are turning to a range of opposition parties; over fifty opposition parties will participate in the national elections, many of which are newly formed. One party is led by former president Jacob Zuma, who was deeply embroiled in corruption scandals. In December of last year, Zuma broke away from the ANC and threw his support behind the new party “African Democratic Change” (also known as MK Party). While Zuma has been disqualified as a parliamentary candidate, the MK Party continues to campaign, with increasing support in polls.
The ANC maintains that given the party’s decades of governing experience and its unparalleled grassroots campaigning machinery, it is confident of retaining its majority. The party still enjoys widespread support, especially among elderly voters and rural areas.
Half of the 400 seats in parliament are directly elected, while the remaining 200 seats are allocated based on the provincial election results of the parties. The new president will be elected by the new members of parliament.
Voting started at 7 a.m. and ended at 9 p.m. In a population of around 62 million people, nearly 28 million were registered to vote at over 23,000 polling stations. The final results are expected to be announced on Sunday.