By Nellie Peyton and Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo
JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – South Africans on Sunday awaited confirmation of a historic election result that will dismantle a 30-year majority by the African National Congress (ANC), an announcement that will kick off a frantic scramble to form a new governing coalition.
Voters, angry about unemployment, inequality and energy shortages, cut support for the ANC – the late Nelson Mandela’s former liberation movement – to 40% in Wednesday’s election, down from 57.5% in the poll. 2019 parliamentary.
This means it must now share power, probably with a major political rival, in order to maintain it – a prospect unprecedented since the end of white minority rule in 1994.
From the official announcement of the results expected on Sunday night, political parties will have two weeks to reach an agreement before a new parliament convenes to choose a president, who will likely still emerge from the ANC as the largest party.
The count of the May 29 vote was almost complete on Sunday morning, with results from 99.9% of polling stations.
Before Wednesday, the ANC had won every national election by a landslide since 1994, but over the past decade its support has waned as the economy stagnated, unemployment rose and roads and power stations collapsed.
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), won 21.8% of the vote in last week’s elections. uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former President Jacob Zuma, managed to take 14.6%, doing most of the damage to the ANC.
The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, polled 9.5%.
Both the DA and the small Inkatha Freedom Party said their leadership would meet separately on Sunday to discuss next steps.
“The DA’s office is awaiting final results. Once certified, we will review the final lay of the land and party structures are meeting to determine the next way to proceed,” said DA spokeswoman Charity McCord.
However, there have been no coalition talks with any party yet, she added.
Despite doing better than almost everyone expected, MK said it was considering challenging the results in court.
(Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
