Categories: NEWS

Emerging Results In South Africa’s National Elections Show Unprecedented Dramatic Shift Since The End Of Apartheid

<h4>Emerging Results<&sol;h4>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a><&sol;strong> reports that emerging results from the South Africa&&num;8217&semi;s national elections show unprecedented dramatic shift since the end of apartheid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>According to reports obtained from <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">Reuters<&sol;a>&comma; the African National Congress&comma; ANC&comma; appeared on course to lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Partial results from South Africa&&num;8217&semi;s national election showed&comma; in what would be the most dramatic political shift since the end of apartheid&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>If the final results confirm the loss of its majority&comma; the ANC will be forced to make a deal with one or more other parties to govern &&num;8211&semi; a situation that could lead to unprecedented political volatility in the coming weeks or months&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;There will be checks and balances on the ANC power&comma; but the ultimate risk is that the infighting could make governance ineffective&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Simon Harvey&comma; head of foreign exchange analysis at Monex Europe&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With results in from 16&period;7&percnt; of polling stations&comma; the ANC&&num;8217&semi;s share of the vote in Wednesday&&num;8217&semi;s election stood at 42&period;5&percnt;&comma; with the pro-business Democratic Alliance &lpar;DA&rpar; on 25&period;8&percnt;&comma; data from the electoral commission showed on Thursday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters &lpar;EFF&rpar; party was on 8&period;5&percnt;&comma; while uMkhonto we Sizwe &lpar;MK&rpar;&comma; a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma&comma; was snapping at its heels on 8&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;I don&&num;8217&semi;t think it&&num;8217&semi;s likely for the ANC to reach a majority&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said pollster Reza Omar of Citizen Surveys&comma; noting that while the picture would evolve&comma; it was unlikely to change to that extent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>South African broadcaster eNCA projected that the ANC&&num;8217&semi;s final score would land on the 45&percnt; mark while the DA would remain the largest opposition party on 21&percnt;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The ANC looks forward to a clear mandate from voters to continue the work of transforming South Africa and building a better life for all&comma;&&num;8221&semi; the party said in a statement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Tessa Dooms&comma; director of the Rivonia Circle think-tank in Johannesburg&comma; said the early results were skewed towards rural areas where she would have expected the ANC to be performing more strongly than it was&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The rural vote comes in early and it&&num;8217&semi;s always much smaller&period; The urban vote comes in quite late&period; I think this election will be a lot more contested in the urban areas&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she told Reuters at the results centre in Midrand&comma; north of Johannesburg&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Under South Africa&&num;8217&semi;s constitution&comma; the newly elected National Assembly will elect the next president&period; With the ANC still on course to be the largest party&comma; that is likely to be its leader Cyril Ramaphosa&comma; the incumbent&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; a poor showing could make him vulnerable to a leadership challenge from within party ranks&comma; whether in the immediate future or at some point during his term&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>With South Africa entering uncharted political territory&comma; Harvey said the speed at which a coalition could be formed would be an indication of what was to come&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;If it is protracted&comma; you may start to worry about a political gridlock going forward&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he said&period;<br &sol;>&NewLine;The uncertainty weighed on South African markets&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The rand slipped more than 1&percnt; against the U&period;S&period; dollar to hit its weakest level in four weeks while the wider equity index &lpar;&period;JTOPI&rpar;&comma; opens new tab dropped more than 2&percnt; in its worst day in six weeks&period; The country&&num;8217&semi;s international bonds lost as much as 1 cent in the dollar&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>THE ZUMA FACTOR<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The ANC has won national elections held every five years since the landmark 1994 election&comma; which marked the end of apartheid and the ascent of Nelson Mandela as president&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But since those heady days the ANC&&num;8217&semi;s support has declined because of disillusionment over issues such as high unemployment and crime&comma; frequent power blackouts and corruption&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In the previous election in 2019&comma; the ANC won 57&period;5&percnt; of the vote&comma; with 20&period;8&percnt; for the DA and 10&period;8&percnt; for the EFF&comma; on a turnout of 66&percnt; of registered voters&comma; which the commission has already said is likely to be higher this time&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>At provincial level&comma; the early results showed the ANC on 35&period;7&percnt;&comma; the DA on 29&period;6&percnt;&percnt; and the EFF on 10&period;8&percnt; in the key province of Gauteng&comma; which includes the country&&num;8217&semi;s business capital Johannesburg and the sprawling townships of Soweto and Alexandra&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;vanguardngr&period;com&sol;">In KwaZulu-Natal&comma; a populous eastern province where the major city of Durban is located&comma; Zuma&&num;8217&semi;s MK was performing strongly&comma; with 43&period;2&percnt; of the vote versus 21&period;7&percnt; for the ANC&period; KwaZulu-Natal is his home province and he is popular there&period;<&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Zuma was forced to quit as president in 2018 after a string of scandals and has since fallen out with the ANC leadership&comma; leading him to throw his weight behind MK&period; The party&comma; named after the ANC&&num;8217&semi;s armed wing from the apartheid era&comma; appeared to be costing both the ANC and the EFF votes&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;MK is going to be a real player&period; That it tracks close to the EFF is significant because they are going after the same voters&comma;&&num;8221&semi; said Dooms&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>By law&comma; the electoral commission has seven days to declare full results&comma; but in practice it is usually faster than that&period; In the last election&comma; in 2019&comma; voting took place on a Wednesday like this year and final results came on the Saturday&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The new parliament must convene within 14 days of final results being declared and its first act must be to elect the nation&&num;8217&semi;s president&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>This means that if the ANC is confirmed to have lost its majority there could be two weeks of intense and complex negotiations to agree on how to form a new government&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The African National Congress &comma; a leading political party in South Africa&comma; originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994&comma; when the first post-apartheid election resulted in Nelson Mandela being elected as President of South Africa&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Founded by John Langalibalele Dube&comma; Sol Plaatje&comma; Pixley ka Isaka Seme&comma; Josiah Tshangana Gumede on 8 January 1912&comma; current President Cyril Ramaphosa emerged under ANC<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;25270" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-25270" style&equals;"width&colon; 299px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-25270" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2024&sol;05&sol;Cyril&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Emerging Results In South Africa's National Elections Show Unprecedented Dramatic Shift Since The End Of Apartheid" width&equals;"299" height&equals;"168" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-25270" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em><strong>Not a smiling moment for President Cyril Ramaphosa<&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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