THE AFRICAN National Congress took a massive lead in South Africa’s general election last night, prompting thousands of supporters of the ruling party to fill the streets of Johannesburg to celebrate.
By early evening yesterday the former liberation movement had secured almost two-thirds of the votes after half the ballots had been counted at polling stations across the country.
More than 23 million South Africans had registered to vote in the country’s fourth democratic election and a voter turnout of 77 per cent was estimated.
The only question left was whether the ANC would win the two-thirds majority in parliament – 66.7 per cent – which would be necessary if it wants to make changes to the constitution.
According to the Independent Electoral Commission, the ANC had won 66 per cent of the votes counted by 6pm local time, the Democratic Alliance (DA) was in second place on 16.2 per cent and the fledgling party, the Congress of the People (Cope), was running third on 8 per cent.
However, the majority of votes from the main cities, where the opposition parties hope to poll well, had yet to be finalised.
Speaking to the tens of thousands gathered in Johannesburg ANC president Jacob Zuma, who will become the country’s next leader, said the party would not officially celebrate victory until the Independent Electoral Commission announced the result, but he thanked the people for their support.
As pre-election surveys predicted, the DA was leading in its stronghold Western Cape province, the only one out of the nine regions in which the ANC was not winning. If the party led by former journalist Helen Zille manages to maintain its 16 per cent polling it would mark a significant improvement on its 2004 general election performance when it won 12 per cent of the votes.
Although Cope – formed last December by disgruntled ANC members who broke away from the ruling party – appeared to be performing less well than surveys predicted, it looked likely to become the official opposition in two or three provinces.
Cope’s presidential candidate Mvume Dandala joked that his party’s vote was a fine performance for a cash-strapped young movement that became famous as “the party without posters”.
“We are satisfied and in fact feel very encouraged that as a young party we could actually be gunning for 600,000 plus [votes],” said Mr Dandala.
The biggest losers appeared to be smaller parties such as the Inkatha Freedom Party who lost out to the ANC in the once volatile KwaZulu Natal Province, and the Independent Democrats who lost out to the ruling party, Cope and the DA in the Western Cape.
International monitors also declared the April 22nd election as free and fair despite a number of violent incidents, including the murder of an ANC supporter and a senior Cope official in the Eastern Cape Province. The murders have been condemned by both parties.