South Africans vote in crucial general election

South Africans have been voting on Wednesday in a general election that has been considered very crucial in the country’s history.

Voting has been progressing smoothly across the country on Wednesday with special voting already held on Monday for selected voters.

Wednesday’s voting is coming thirty years after the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule.

Voting is taking place in all nine provinces with more than 23,000 polling stations. The election will decide the makeup of both the national and provincial legislatures.

A new composed national parliament will then choose a new president for the country.

The ruling governing African National Congress party is facing the possibility of losing its majority for the first time since 1994, according to many pollsters.

In the previous election in 2019 the ANC won 57.5% of the vote, its worst result to date.

If the ANC gets less than 50% of the national vote, it has to form a coalition some opposition parties.

70 political parties and 11 independents are contesting the national and provincial elections.

But the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and newcomer umKhonto we Sizwe (MK) are the main parties that could make significant impact apart from the ruling ANC.

Nearly 28 million of the population of 62 million registered to vote in what is seen as a very crucial election.

Results are expected within days.