ANC Falls to 31.8% in South Africa's Local Elections With Most Ballots Counted

South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) was on 31.8% of the national vote with more than 80% of ballots counted in the country's local elections, according to The Guardian. That is almost 14 percentage points below the party's result in the 2021 local elections. The ANC has led national governments since the end of white minority apartheid rule in 1994.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party, had 24.1% nationally at the same stage of the count. uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), a party named after the armed wing of the ANC, had 9.3%. Local elections choose councils for cities and towns rather than the national government, so these shares describe voting for municipal councils.

South Africa's Electoral Commission, the independent body that runs elections, estimated turnout at 54.5% of registered voters. That is up from 46% five years earlier, according to the commission's estimate reported by The Guardian.

The ANC was projected to lose its position as the largest party in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, the two most populous provinces. Final results are expected to be announced on Sunday.

Johannesburg, Gauteng's largest city, offers an early picture of the shift. With just over half of its votes counted, the DA led with 40%, ANC on 17.5% and ActionSA on 15.5%. A projection by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) put the DA on 34%, the ANC on 20% and ActionSA on 16.8% once the count finished. The DA was leading in all three of Gauteng's city municipalities.

In eThekwini, the municipality that includes Durban in KwaZulu-Natal, MK had 41% with half of the votes counted. The DA was projected to keep its majority in Cape Town.

Johannesburg's municipal government has faced long-running problems. The city has admitted to an infrastructure spending backlog of 220 billion rand (£9.9 billion), and it has had 10 changes of mayor in the last decade.