SAElection 24: ANC Majority is at Stake as Ballots Are Counted in South Africa.

Voters in a historic election waited far into the night to cast their ballots, and as of Thursday, provisional results indicate the African National Congress (ANC) may lose its 30-year-old, uncontested control.

With lengthy lines of voters stretching into the night, counting got underway in each polling place soon after the polls closed, and in several cities even after the scheduled Wednesday cutoff at 9:00 p.m. (1900 GMT).

According to electoral authorities, the ANC was leading with little over 10% of the votes counted, although its score of 42% was significantly lower than the 57% it received in 2019. The Liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) was next with 26% of the vote.

With 8% of the vote, the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) came in third, behind the 7% of votes cast for uMkhonto weSizwe (MK), the political party of former president Jacob Zuma.

It’s unlikely that the final results will be revealed before the weekend.

In South Africa’s first democratic election following apartheid, President Cyril Ramaphosa will have to look for coalition partners if his party is proven to have lost below 50 percent of the vote. This would necessitate his seeking reelection and formation of a new government.

Newspaper headlines on Thursday emphasized that as a significant development in the nation’s democratic history.

“SA on the cusp of shift in politics,” the daily BusinessDay headline said.

The Citizen headed “The people have spoken” and said that the lengthy lines were “reminiscent” of the ones that three decades ago brought late liberation leader Nelson Mandela to office.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) expected that the final turnout will be “well beyond” the 66 percent registered in 2019 and blamed Wednesday’s late completion on a last-minute rush of urban voting combined with high turnout.

However, a lot of voters grumbled at voting places about how complicated the three-ballot method was.

Granville Abrahams, general manager of electoral operations at the IEC, said that the electoral officials “could have done better” “under the circumstances”.

He said to local station Newzroom Afrika, “But I think that, given the challenges that we had, we were able to get up to our feet very quickly by making minor adjustments.”