AP, PRETORIA
South Africa’s long-dominant African National Congress (ANC) won overwhelmingly in parliamentary elections, but did not get the two-thirds of the vote it won with ease in the last elections, the final tally released yesterday showed. The victory puts party leader Jacob Zuma in line for the presidency.
The ANC took 65.9 percent of the nearly 18 million votes cast on Wednesday.
The victory was never in doubt. But it was unclear whether the party would retain its coveted two-thirds of the seats in the 400-seat parliament. The vote tally roughly parallels the seat distribution, but the exact number of seats must still be allotted by election officials using a complicated formula after the final count is certified.
ANC spokesman Ishmael Mnisi said the apparent slide from previous votes was unimportant.
“We don’t read much into percentages,” he said. “We’re quite happy with the mandate that the people of all races, black and white, have given the ANC.”
The ANC won 69.69 percent of the vote in the last elections in 2004, when it was led by Zuma’s rival Thabo Mbeki. It won 66.35 percent in 1999. In the country’s first all-race vote in 1994, the ANC won 62.64 percent of the vote.
The party’s rivals will make much of the slide, however.
It could be seen as a message that voters want some limits on the party. ANC rivals had argued Zuma should not have the two-thirds majority needed to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged or to change the constitution.
In total more than 77 percent of the country’s record 23 million registered voters cast ballots. Turnout in 2004 was about 76 percent of more than 20 million registered voters..
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