South African election officials, party representatives and journalists monitor live results as they are updated in the IEC National Results Operations Center in Johannesburg as vote counting continues a day after a general election that could see President Cyril Ramaphosa's ANC government lose its majority. Photo by Kim Ludbrook/EPA-EFE
May 30 (UPI) -- Early results Thursday from South Africa's general election show the ruling African National Congress on track to lose its parliamentary majority for the first time since it rose to power three decades ago at the end of the apartheid era.
The Independent Electoral Commission's results portal shows ANC gaining 43.1% of the vote which would translate to 172 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly with the Democratic Alliance holding 25% and the socialist Economic Freedom Fighters trailing with 8.7%.
Former president Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe party also has around 8% but is surging ahead of the ANC in Zuma's home KwaZulu-Natal province 300 miles southeast of Johannesburg where the party he quit in December has won 21% of the vote so far, compared with 43% garnered by MK.
A court banned Zuma from running in yesterday's poll due to a 2021 contempt of court conviction -- but the ruling came too late to remove his name from ballot papers.
As the second most populous province, KwaZulu-Natal, is a must-win due to the 121 seats it returns to parliament, second only to the capital province of Gauteng.
The ANC's majority in Gauteng, the county's economic heartland, is also under threat with the main opposition Democratic Alliance at 29%, compared with the ruling party's 36%.
The party of Nelson Mandela could end up with as little as 42% of the vote, according to South Africa's News24.
However, with only just more than 2 million votes counted out of 27 million registered voters and final results not expected before Sunday, the situation could change and no party is claiming victory.
"Under my leadership the ANC ran a formidable and clean campaign with our volunteers covering the length and breadth of our country. The democratic process is going to emerge victorious," President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote on social media late Wednesday.
The ANC's share of the vote has been on the decline in recent years, falling below 60% in the 2019 election for the first time amid growing disillusionment over its failure to tackle poverty, huge income inequality, soaring crime, corruption scandals and regular blackouts.
Losing the comfortable 60-seat majority it held in the last parliament would compel the ANC to look to rival parties for support and potentially a coalition in which it would be forced to share power.
A loss could negatively impact foreign investment.
Institutional investors, in particular, have been historically supportive of the party's progressive economic policies aimed at improving the standard of living of the country's Black majority -- despite 33% unemployment, low pay and lack of access to opportunity and services that led the World Bank to call South Africa "the most unequal country in the world."
South African stocks were down across the board on Thursday with the FTSE/JSE All Share Index falling 2.1% to 76,923 although the currency, the Rand, was holding up trading slightly higher at 18.61 to the dollar.
Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the number of seats KwaZulu-Natal sends to parliament from 41 to 121.