African National Congress vote share drops to 40 percent, forcing it to seek coalition partners to form government.
The African National Congress (ANC) party has lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago.
With more than 99 percent of votes counted on Saturday, the once-dominant ANC had received nearly 40 percent in Wednesday’s election, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela.
The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance (DA), had 21.63 percent and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president and ANC leader Jacob Zuma, managed to grab 14.71 percent – pulling away votes from the ANC.
Opposition parties have hailed the result as a momentous breakthrough for a country struggling with deep poverty and inequality, but the ANC remained the biggest party by some way.
“The way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” said main opposition leader John Steenhuisen.
The final results are still to be formally declared by the independent Electoral Commission that ran the election, but the ANC cannot pass 50 percent.
Reporting from the Results Operation Centre in Midrand, South Africa, Al Jazeera’s Mike Hanna said the ANC will try to find a way to form a new government.
