Ramaphosa under massive pressure after ANC’s worst election results in 30 years
President Ramaphosa of South Africa
Published By: Kazeem Ugbodaga
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is under massive pressure after his party, African National Congress (ANC) churned out the worst election results in 30 years.
According to the BBC, with almost all the votes in, the ANC is on 40% – down from 58% at the previous election.
The party is considering sharing power with others in order to boost its base.
France 24 reports that results were not yet final but with more than 97% of votes counted, the ANC had just over 40%. It is a huge slide considering the ANC has dominated South African politics for 30 years since the end of white minority rule in 1994 and at its height commanded 70% of the vote in Africa’s most advanced economy.
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Election officials said the final results from Wednesday’s election will be declared by Sunday, but it appeared they might now come in earlier. The last vote counting was still taking place from some of the 23,000 polling stations across the country’s nine provinces.
France 24 added that the ANC still has the largest share of votes by some way, according to the partial results. But without a majority it is set to have to negotiate a coalition with another party or parties to remain in the government. That also has repercussions for the future of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, a protege of Mandela.
The online portal added that South Africans vote for parties in national elections to decide how many seats each party gets in Parliament. Lawmakers then elect the president, and if the ANC is short of the 50% mark, it will not have a majority of lawmakers and will need help from others to reelect Ramaphosa for a second and final term.
The ANC leadership has begun to consult internally to prepare for complex coalition talks. Its options are the DA, which is in second place on 22%, the uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) party led by former President Jacob Zuma, on 15%, or the radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 9%, the BBC said.
