June 1 (UPI) — South Africa’s ruling party has lost its majority, putting President Cyril Ramaphosa under pressure to form a coalition government as the polls close in the country’s election.
With nearly all votes reported and counted, Ramaphosa and his African National Congress now 40% of the national vote, the party’s lowest vote total since its inception in 1994.
The ANC collected 58% of the vote in South Africa’s previous election on the way to securing a majority government.
Its own analysts had predicted a worst-case scenario would see the party pick up 45% of the vote. The ANC has never polled below 50% after Nelson Mandela was chosen as its leader and won the presidency in the country’s first democratic election in 1994 following the end of Apartheid.
Final election results are expected to be made public at 6 p.m. SAST on Sunday.
Support for Ramaphosa and his party is waning as South Africans look for political alternatives to combat continually-high levels of corruption, unemployment and crime.
The 71-year-old came to power in 2018, succeeding former President Jacob Zuma. Now, Ramaphosa and ANC leadership are considering coalition options, the BBC reported, including with Zuma’s newly-formed uMkhonto weSizwe or MK party.
The far-left MK party was only formed late last year but has picked up around 15% of the votes.
Another far-left party, the Economic Freedom Fighters collected 9% of the vote.
Zuma, now 82, was released early from prison last August due to overcrowding after being handed a 15-month sentence for defying a court order to testify on corruption charges.
Ramaphosa and Zuma were locked in a power struggle over ANC leadership, with the latter ultimately resigning in 2018 because of corruption charges.
The MK party has said it would consider working with the ANC but not while Ramaphosa, the country’s fifth president, is in charge.
Zuma’s new party has petitioned for nationalizing banks and expropriating land held by White land-owners without compensation.
The economic-focussed Democratic Alliance sat in second place Saturday after collecting an estimated 21.7% of the vote.
Its leader John Steenhuisen did not rule out a coalition agreement with the ANC but did say any shared government could not include Zuma’s MK party.