South Africans headed to the polls on Wednesday for a general election that could see the ruling African National Congress (ANC) lose power at the national level for the first time since multiracial democracy began in 1994.
South African voters are frustrated by the ANC’s persistent and debilitating corruption, high crime rates, power and water shortages and a stagnant economy with unemployment well above 30 percent.
The opposition, led by the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA), had hoped to keep the ANC’s approval rating below 50 percent for the first time and outmaneuver the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, a potential partner in a coalition government.
Opinion polls in the months leading up to the election were highly variable, but the ANC appeared to be performing well due to high voter turnout and large rallies across the country. The DA was expected to gain seats at the national level and maintain its majority at the provincial level in the Western Cape, the only one of the country’s nine provinces it governs. Vote counting is expected to take several days.
Voters can vote in person all day long, but only if they show government-issued identification, after which an independent election commission will count the ballots by hand.
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of a new biography, Roda: “Comrade Kadariye, you are disrupting order.”He recently published an e-book titled ” Not Free or Fair: The 2020 US Presidential ElectionHe is the recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship in 2018. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
