JOHANNESBURG — Very early counts in South Africa’s national election put the long-ruling African National Congress at just over 42% of the vote, raising the possibility that it might lose its majority for the first time since it swept to power under Nelson Mandela at the end of apartheid in 1994.
With only just over 16% of votes counted and declared, it was only a partial picture after Wednesday’s election. The final results of a vote that could bring the biggest political shift in South Africa’s young democracy were expected to take days, with the independent electoral commission saying they would be delivered by Sunday.
South Africans were set to wait with baited breath to see if their country, Africa’s most advanced economy, was about to see momentous change.
The electoral commission was projecting a 70% voter turnout in this election, up from the 66% in the last national election in 2019. The ANC won 57.5% of the vote in that last election, its worst performance to date.
This election was seen as a direct referendum on the unbroken three-decade rule of the ANC, which freed South Africa from the oppressive, racist apartheid regime in the famous all-race vote of 1994 but has seen a steady decrease in its popularity over the last 20 years.
