Success for ANC in South African elections

2014-05-09 9

With the majority of the results now in, the African National Congress has dominated South Africa’s general election, winning around 62 percent of the vote.

The ANC has been accused of widespread corruption with its leader and current South African president Jacob Zuma plagued by scandal.

But this doesn’t seem to have deterred the electorate, as the expected ANC victory would extend Zuma’s presidency by a second term.

Meanwhile, Helen Zille’s Democratic Alliance (DA) is in second place, with 22 percent of the vote.

Although it had hoped to garner the support of the black electorate, the DA still appeals to mainly white voters. The majority of its following comes from the largely white and mixed race Western Cape.

Malema’s militant Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party lies in third place with around six percent of the vote.

In a country where one in four people are out of work, the EFF appeals largely to unemployed youths and older black South Africans, who feel they’ve been overlooked since the end of apartheid.

The elections are the first since the death of Nelson Mandela, the country’s first black president.