27.7 million voters are registered.
15.3 million (55.25%) women are registered voters.
12.4 million men (44.75%) are registered voters.
Parties to politics: 70
Eleven independent contenders
23,292 polling locations
Two ballots for the national assembly and one ballot for the provincial legislature total three.
Opinion polls indicate that the ANC may lose its majority.
voters enraged by high rates of crime, unemployment, and power outages
Polling began at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT), and lines grew in the early morning cold in townships on the fringes of cities and in rural areas. Queues formed in the big cities of Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Durban.
The ANC will have to strike a deal with one or more minor parties to govern if it doesn’t receive 50% of the vote this time. This will be unfamiliar and possibly turbulent territory for the fledgling democracy that has up to now been ruled by a single party.
The nation’s nine provinces will each have a provincial assembly chosen by the electorate, in addition to a new national parliament that will select the nation’s next president.
Leader of the ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa, is expected to stay in office as long as the party maintains its path to the highest percentage of the vote.
‘MOST IMMEDIATE ELECTION’
After casting his ballot in the vast township of Soweto, outside of Johannesburg, Ramaphosa declared that the African National Congress (ANC) had ran a solid campaign.
“I have no doubt whatsoever in my heart of hearts that the people will invest their confidence in the African National Congress,” declared the president.
In order to effect change in South Africa, John Steenhuisen, the leader of the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) party, which received the second-largest percentage of the vote in the most recent election in 2019, urged voters to cast high turnouts.
“It’s the most important election since 1994,” he declared upon completing his vote in Durban.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), started by fervent former ANC youth wing leader Julius Malema, are among the several opposition groups aiming to weaken the ANC’s hold on power. To rectify racial and economic imbalances, the EFF wants to nationalize banks and mines and take land away from white farmers.
It is not the DA that we see surpassing the ANC. Small boys make up the DA. As he arrived to cast his ballot in Seshego, in the northern province of Limpopo, a normally belligerent Malema told reporters, “We have no time for small boys.”
“We intend to take on the actual giant, the ANC. We’re holding an election to unseat the ANC,” he declared. “We are here to take over government.”
Polls indicate that the EFF’s support has been ranging from 10 to 12%, well below the ANC’s 37–44%, but depending on the outcome of the election, Malema might be in a position to be a kingmaker.
Even though Zuma was forced to resign as president in 2018 due to a series of scandals, his new MK party is expected to erode support for both the ANC and the EFF, particularly in his home region of KwaZulu-Natal.
It is anticipated that the election commission would begin disclosing preliminary results a few hours after polls close and complete results in no more than three or four days.
