**Key election in South Africa: uncertainty reigns as vote approaches**
South Africa will hold crucial national elections on May 29 as polls show the ruling African National Congress (ANC) could lose its majority for the first time since the end of apartheid. 30 years ago.
President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the date last Tuesday, as Africa’s most advanced economy faces numerous challenges under the ANC government. These problems include record unemployment, an energy crisis leading to power outages for homes and businesses, and widespread voter distrust following numerous allegations of corruption over the years.
Several polls predict that the party, once widely admired around the world and led by Nelson Mandela, could fall below 50% of the vote for the first time since winning the first multiracial elections in 1994, marking the end of the domination of the white minority.
If the ANC loses its majority, the party is expected to form a coalition to stay in power and keep Ramaphosa, a political protégé of Mandela, as president for a second and final five-year term. South Africa has never had a coalition at the national level due to the dominance of the ANC.
South Africans vote for a party, not a presidential candidate, in general elections. Parties are then allocated seats in the 400-member parliament based on their vote share, and lawmakers elect the president.
The ANC is still expected to win the largest share of the vote, but one poll places it dramatically below 40%.
South Africa’s main opposition party, the centrist Democratic Alliance, is discussing forming a coalition of opposition parties aimed at completely ousting the ANC from government, although all of these parties are expected to significantly increase their share of vote to obtain together more than 50%.
The third largest party, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, is not involved in this opposition coalition, but has managed to attract support away from the ANC and has been the only one of the three main parties to increase its share in the last general elections.
Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen said the announcement of the election date ushered in “a countdown to a historic moment when South Africa has the opportunity to break free from 30 years of failures, corruption and state capture by the ANC.”
The Economic Freedom Fighters said the election was “an opportunity for all South Africans to end the misery we have suffered as a nation under the incompetent, corrupt and misguided governance of the ruling party, l ANC.”
The vote will be the seventh fully democratic poll in South Africa. Before 1994, black people were not allowed to vote. Ramaphosa announced the election date in a statement from his office.
“Apart from fulfilling our constitutional obligation, these upcoming elections are also a celebration of our democratic journey and a determination of the future we all desire,” he said. “I call on all South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote and for those campaigning to do so peacefully, in full compliance with the law.”
The ANC has won every national election since 1994 with a clear majority, but its support has gradually declined over the past 20 years. The most significant wake-up call came in the 2021 local elections, when the ANC fell below 50%.
South Africans are tired of a struggling economy and an unemployment rate topping 30%, the highest in the world. The unemployment rate for young people aged 15 to 24 reaches a dizzying 59%.
A period of rampant corruption under former president Jacob Zuma from 2009 to 2018 eroded the party’s reputation. South Africa is battling rising levels of violent crime and widespread poverty.
Ramaphosa, 71, had some success in cleaning up the corruption-tainted ANC after being first elected president in 2019, but the power crisis that caused record outages last year seriously dented his popularity .
During the elections, South Africans will also vote on the composition of provincial legislatures in the country’s nine provinces.
In summary, South Africa is at a turning point in its political history, where uncertainty reigns over the outcome of the upcoming national elections. These elections could mark a significant change in the dynamics of the country and influence its political and economic future.