South Africans yesterday began voting in the most competitive election since the end of apartheid, with opinion polls suggesting the African National Congress (ANC) would lose its parliamentary majority after 30 years in government.
Polling stations opened at about 7am, with voters queuing at some locations, including Hitekani Primary School in the vast township of Soweto near Johannesburg, where South Afican President Cyril Ramaphosa was expected to vote later.
Security guard Shivambu Yuza Patric, 48, came straight to the polling station after working a night shift.
Photo: Reuters
He said he had not voted in the previous election, because he had lost faith in the ANC, but he was hopeful this election would bring change.
“They do nothing for the people,” he said of the ANC, adding that he would decide at the last minute who to vote for, but was leaning toward small opposition party ActionSA.
Then led by Nelson Mandela, the ANC swept to power in South Africa’s first multiracial election in 1994 and has won a majority in national elections held every five years since, although its share of the vote has gradually declined.
If it falls short of 50 percent this time, the ANC would have to make a deal with one or more smaller parties to govern — uncharted and potentially choppy waters for a young democracy that has so far been utterly dominated by a single party.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty with what’s going to happen. Are we going to have a coalition?” asked student and first-time-voter Amena Luke, 19, as she waited to cast her ballot at Berario Recreation Centre in Johannesburg.
The ANC is still on course to win the largest share of the vote, meaning that Ramaphosa is likely to remain president, unless he faces an internal challenge if the party’s performance is worse than expected.
Voter dissatisfaction over high rates of unemployment and crime, frequent power blackouts and corruption in party ranks lies behind the ANC’s gradual fall from grace.
“I voted for the EFF and that’s because I need fresh minds in parliament,” said Andrew Mathabatha, 40, a self-employed engineer, who arrived early to vote there.
He was referring to the Economic Freedom Fighters, a party founded by Julius Malema, a firebrand former leader of the ANC’s youth wing. It wants to nationalize mines and banks and seize land from white farmers to address racial and economic disparities.
More than 27 million South Africans are registered to vote at more than 23,000 polling stations located in schools, sports centres and even a funeral parlor in Pretoria. Voting stations were to close at 9pm.
Voters are to elect provincial assemblies in each of the country’s nine provinces, and a new national parliament which would then choose the next president.
Among opposition parties vying for power is the pro-business Democratic Alliance, which won the second-largest vote share in 2019 and has formed an alliance with several smaller parties to try to broaden its appeal.
Former president Jacob Zuma is backing a new party called uMkhonto we Sizwe, named after the ANC’s former armed wing. Zuma, who was forced to quit as president in 2018 after a string of scandals, has enduring influence, particularly in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
He has been barred from standing as a lawmaker because of a conviction for contempt of court.
The South African Electoral Commission is expected to start releasing partial results within hours of polling stations closing. It has seven days to announce final results, but at the last election — also held on a Wednesday — it did so on a Saturday.
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