South Africa Election Results 2019: Cyril Ramaphosa-Led ANC Wins Another Term With Reduced Majority
A total of 48 parties were in the fray for this elections. The seats will be distributed as per the proportional representation system, with MPs being selected from each party based on their vote share.
Pretoria, May 11: The African National Congress (ANC), ruling South Africa since the end of apartheid in 1994, has been re-elected to power. Although the voters have handed the party another term, this is the lowest-ever vote share secured by ANC in national elections in the last 24 years. President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is set to take oath for the second time, has welcomed the people's mandate.
According to the results declared by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), the ANC has secured a vote share of 57 per cent, by the time 95 per cent of the votes were tallied. Their margin will remain moreover the same by the time all the votes will be tallied, the polling body said. When Cyril Ramaphosa Got Stuck in Train for Hours During Election Campaign
The prime Opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA), has secured a vote share of 20.65 per cent. Though a distant second, it has drastically improved its electoral tally -- from 6.54 per cent in 2014 to above 20 per cent in this round of the polls.
The Economic Freedom Fighters, founded six years ago by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, was in third place with 10.51 percent -- up four percentage points on 2014.
A total of 48 parties were in the fray for this elections. The seats will be distributed as per the proportional representation system, with MPs being selected from each party based on their vote share.
Experts claim that the ANC would had faced its first-ever rout had President Jacob Zuma not stepped down last year. The "growing corruption" under Zuma regime had disenchanted the core ANC base, which had prompted the party to replace him with Ramaphosa last year.
Ramaphosa faces a stringent challenge, with the South African economy growing at merely 0.8 per cent, and unemployment looming at 27 per cent. Among the youth, nearly 50 per cent are out of jobs, reports claim.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 11, 2019 10:43 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).