August 06, 2016
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's ruling party has suffered its biggest election setback since taking power at the end of apartheid a generation ago, with results from two of the country's largest cities still uncertain Saturday with less than 1 percent of votes left to be counted.
Final results of municipal elections were being announced at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). Races remained too close to call in the country's largest city, Johannesburg, and Tshwane, the metropolitan area of the capital.
Since South Africa's first all-race election in 1994, the African National Congress party has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule. But in this vote, it has been challenged by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy that has frustrated the country's urban middle class.
The ANC already has lost its first major black-majority municipality in this election, Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC's star and the country's first black president. The opposition Democratic Alliance, which has roots in the anti-apartheid movement and was white-led until last year, won Nelson Mandela Bay after fielding a white candidate for mayor. The party's leader, Mmusi Maimane, also has predicted victory in Tshwane.
The Democratic Alliance already runs the city of Cape Town, the country's second largest and the only major South African city where blacks are not in the majority. It has been pushing hard to win supporters in other regions.
The Democratic Alliance angered the ANC last month by declaring that it was the only party that could realize Mandela's dream of a "prosperous, united and non-racial South Africa." Neither party appeared to have a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane that would allow it to govern alone, raising the possibility of coalition governments. A more radical opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, contested the local elections for the first time and received 8 percent of the vote nationwide after promising measures it says will help the poor.
The ANC so far has received 53 percent of votes across the country, its lowest percentage ever, with the Democratic Alliance getting 27 percent. The results for the ANC could put pressure on President Jacob Zuma to leave office before his mandate ends in 2019, political analysts said.
In a statement Friday, the ANC said "we will reflect and introspect where our support has dropped." It retained support in many rural areas in a country where blacks make up 80 percent of the population.
The South African economy has stagnated since the global financial crisis in 2008, and the World Bank says the country has one of the highest rates of inequality in the world. Scandals swirling around Zuma have also hurt the ANC. Opposition groups have seized on the revelation that the state paid more than $20 million for upgrades to Zuma's private home. The Constitutional Court recently said Zuma violated the constitution and instructed him to reimburse the state $507,000.
Many South Africans are also concerned over allegations that Zuma is heavily influenced by the Guptas, a wealthy business family of immigrants from India. The president has denied any wrongdoing.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's ruling party has suffered its biggest election setback since taking power at the end of apartheid a generation ago, with results from two of the country's largest cities still uncertain Saturday with less than 1 percent of votes left to be counted.
Final results of municipal elections were being announced at 6 p.m. (1600 GMT). Races remained too close to call in the country's largest city, Johannesburg, and Tshwane, the metropolitan area of the capital.
Since South Africa's first all-race election in 1994, the African National Congress party has had widespread support on the strength of its successful fight against white-minority rule. But in this vote, it has been challenged by corruption scandals and a stagnant economy that has frustrated the country's urban middle class.
The ANC already has lost its first major black-majority municipality in this election, Nelson Mandela Bay, named for the ANC's star and the country's first black president. The opposition Democratic Alliance, which has roots in the anti-apartheid movement and was white-led until last year, won Nelson Mandela Bay after fielding a white candidate for mayor. The party's leader, Mmusi Maimane, also has predicted victory in Tshwane.
The Democratic Alliance already runs the city of Cape Town, the country's second largest and the only major South African city where blacks are not in the majority. It has been pushing hard to win supporters in other regions.
The Democratic Alliance angered the ANC last month by declaring that it was the only party that could realize Mandela's dream of a "prosperous, united and non-racial South Africa." Neither party appeared to have a majority in Johannesburg or Tshwane that would allow it to govern alone, raising the possibility of coalition governments. A more radical opposition party, the Economic Freedom Fighters, contested the local elections for the first time and received 8 percent of the vote nationwide after promising measures it says will help the poor.
The ANC so far has received 53 percent of votes across the country, its lowest percentage ever, with the Democratic Alliance getting 27 percent. The results for the ANC could put pressure on President Jacob Zuma to leave office before his mandate ends in 2019, political analysts said.
In a statement Friday, the ANC said "we will reflect and introspect where our support has dropped." It retained support in many rural areas in a country where blacks make up 80 percent of the population.
The South African economy has stagnated since the global financial crisis in 2008, and the World Bank says the country has one of the highest rates of inequality in the world. Scandals swirling around Zuma have also hurt the ANC. Opposition groups have seized on the revelation that the state paid more than $20 million for upgrades to Zuma's private home. The Constitutional Court recently said Zuma violated the constitution and instructed him to reimburse the state $507,000.
Many South Africans are also concerned over allegations that Zuma is heavily influenced by the Guptas, a wealthy business family of immigrants from India. The president has denied any wrongdoing.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.