- The results show the ANC with 41% of the votes and the DA in second place with 21%.
- Election officials announce they will reveal the election verdict on Sunday.
- The newly formed National Assembly will then elect the country's president.
PRETORIA/CAPE TOWN: South Africa's political parties have prepared for coalition talks as the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is set to lose its three-decade majority with 85% of votes counted.
The country went to vote on Wednesday in the most competitive elections since the end of apartheid, amid high turnout of people voting to elect provincial assemblies in each of the country's nine provinces and a new national parliament that will then elect the next president.
Results so far show President Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC has just 41.12% support, a catastrophic drop from the 57.5% it got in 2019.
In addition to the ANC's key rival Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which won the second-highest share of votes in the last election in 2019, other opposition parties hoping to loosen the ANC's grip on power include the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), founded by Julius. Malema.
Data from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) showed that the centre-right DA came second with 21.95% of the vote.
In third place was former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) with 12.6%, a surprising score for a party founded just a few months ago.
The radical left group Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) came in fourth place with 9.4%.
Final results are expected at the weekend, but with trends clear, politicians and experts were turning their attention to the prospects of an ANC-led coalition.
By law, the electoral commission has seven days to release full provisional results, but election officials have said they are planning an announcement on Sunday.
The fall of the ANC marks a historic turning point for South Africa, as the party had enjoyed an absolute majority since 1994, when liberation leader Nelson Mandela led the nation out of white minority rule and into democracy. .
What happens now?
The political parties' share of votes will determine the number of seats they win in the National Assembly, which then elects the next president.
That could still be the leader of the ANC, the current president Ramaphosa. However, an embarrassing result at the polls risks fueling a leadership challenge.
ANC President Gwede Mantashe said on Thursday that the ANC still wants to win a majority. “A coalition is not our plan; it is a consequence. We will deal with that consequence when it happens,” he said.
Investors and the business community have expressed concern about the prospect of the ANC entering into a coalition with the EFF, which calls for the confiscation of white-owned land and the nationalization of mines and banks, or with Zuma's deputy, who It also talks about land confiscation. .
Although the DA says it wants to topple the ruling party, its leader John Steenhuisen has not ruled out a partnership to block what he has called an “apocalyptic coalition” with the ANC that will bring either the EFF or MK into government.
Mandela's grandson, Mandla Mandela, an outgoing ANC lawmaker, said AFP the DA had “different ideals”, making them too difficult to associate with.
Radical left groups led by former ANC figures, such as Malema's EFF or Zuma's MK, were more likely bedfellows, he said.
Analyst and author Susan Booysen said the EFF was perceived as “too erratic” and “unpredictable” in its demands.
And the rift between Ramaphosa and Zuma, who has long resented the way he was forced from office in 2018, was “too momentous” to repair, he said.
MK spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela appeared to agree, saying the party “would not engage in a discussion with the ANC” while Ramaphosa was leader.
“We will engage with the ANC, but not with Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC,” he said.
Any coalition partner should be willing to amend the Constitution to enact sweeping reforms and grant a pardon to Zuma, who has been declared ineligible following a contempt of court conviction, Ndhlela said.
“We will bring President Zuma back into his National Assembly (and) put him back as president, simple as that,” he added.
