South Africa’s ruling party the ANC is projected to win Wednesday’s legislative election.
But there are indications that victory won’t be landslide, instead with less support than it had in 2014.
Votes are still being collated but results so far show that ANC is set to win less than 60% of total votes.
In 2014 the party secured 62.15% of total votes, signalling how it is losing support in a gradual way.
Results have been declared in some 23% of districts. The ANC has won about 55% of the ballot with the opposition Democratic Alliance coming second with 26%.
An election analyst with News24 Dawie Scholtz said less support among black voters and lower national voter turnout affected the ANC’s support base.
“Lower black voter support is a big problem for the ANC. That is shown by our numbers in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. In 2014, the ANC secured 80% of black voters, but it seems like this year they will end up on 75%.
“This is even more pronounced in KwaZulu-Natal where in the southern parts of the province, their share of black voter support dropped from 85% to 72%. In the northern part of the province, IFP heartland, it dropped from 30% to 25%,”Scholtz said.
AFP reported earlier that based on opinion polls the ANC will secure over 50% of the vote. The DA was forecast to get about 20%.
Key indicators for the elections:
- 26.76 million registered voters
- 55% of them are female
- A record 48 parties are on the ballot
- 28,757 voting stations
- 220,000 members of electoral staff
- Six million young people did not register to vote
Source: Africafeeds.com
