By Enyichukwu Enemanna
The President of South Africa and leader of governing African National Congress (ANC) Cyril Ramaphosa is under growing pressure after his party had its worst electoral outing in the last 30 years, jeopardizing its chances of remaining in power.
After garnering 40%, down from 58% at the previous election, following the counting of almost all the votes, the party which took over power in 1994 is considering a coalition that will keep it in power as President Ramaphosa’s tenure winds down.
The former Nelson Mandela’s party had always polled above 50% since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994 that ended the apartheid era.
“This result is not good. I wanted it out of government. We need to give someone else a chance,” a reporter told the BBC she ended a 30-year voting streak for the ANC in favour of the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) this time.
The final result is expected to be announced at 18:00 local time on Sunday.
ANC is considering coalition with the DA, which is polling second in the election that kicked off Wednesday with 22%, or the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party led by former President Jacob Zuma, which has 15%.
The radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is polling 9%, and will not likely be a good choice for ANC as both parties cannot muster the required 50%.
The new parliament must be sworn in within two weeks of the final results and the new president would normally be chosen then.
Both the EFF and MK advocate seizing white-owned land and nationalising the country’s mines – policies which would alarm foreign investors.
The MK has said it would be prepared to work with the ANC, but not while it was led by Mr Ramaphosa.
He replaced Mr. Zuma as both president and ANC leader following a bitter power struggle in 2018.
MK supporters have been celebrating overnight in Durban, the biggest city in the party’s heartland of KwaZulu-Natal province. The party was only formed in September last year.
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe said his party was unlikely to form an alliance with the DA.
He said there would have to be “policy alignment” between parties to form a coalition agreement.
