ANC Takes Lead In South Africa Election

With close to 90% of the ballots counted, the Independent Electoral Commission showed the ANC with 63% of the vote.

It is South Africa’s first election featuring voters with no memory of the white-minority rule that ended in 1994.

20 years later, the ruling African National Congress (ANC), the liberation movement that swept to power under the leadership of Nelson Mandela clearly still dominates the South African Politics.

Its nearest rival, the Democratic Alliance which is reportedly shedding its image as the political home of privileged whites, came in a distant second.

The Economic Freedom Fighters, led by Julius Malema, a populist politician who was expelled from the ANC, was in third place.

This was the fifth election since the end of apartheid.

The Electoral commission reckons that it ran smoothly, save for an currently under investigation where ANC claimed one of its members was killed.

The ANC's enduring popularity has surprised analysts who had said its support was waning, with opinion polls showed there was disaffection with the country’s leadership following a slew of scandals that have typified Zuma's first term.

South Africa's top anti-graft agency accused Zuma this year of "benefiting unduly" from a $23 million state-funded security upgrade to his private home at Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal.

But Zuma defended the upgrade as necessary for the protection of a head of state.

His personal approval ratings dipped this year, but with an ANC win, President Jacob Zuma returns for a second five-year term.

 

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