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ANC Holds Strong Lead in South African Election Results

By VOA News
23 April 2009

Partial results from South Africa's general election give the ruling African National Congress a strong lead, but it is still not clear whether the party will hold on to its two-thirds majority in parliament.

With more than a third of the ballots counted Thursday, the ANC had just over 66 percent of the vote, putting controversial but popular party leader Jacob Zuma comfortably on course to become the country's next president.

The Democratic Alliance was in second place with about 16.5 percent. If that trend holds up, it would be a improvement on the party's showing in the 2004 elections, when it took around 12 percent.

Trailing a distant third with around 8 percent was South Africa's newest opposition party, the Congress of the People, or COPE, which split off from the ANC last year.

The two-thirds majority in parliament allows the ANC to amend the constitution without the cooperation of other parties.

Zuma to speak at post-election party

Party leader Zuma was scheduled to speak to a post-election victory celebration in Johannesburg later Thursday.

In the Western Cape province, the Democratic Alliance had just over half of the votes and looked set to wrest control of the province from the ANC. The ANC was comfortably winning every other provincial race.

Although the vote was peaceful in much of the country, a COPE official in Eastern Cape province was shot dead, in what party officials are calling a political killing.

The Independent Electoral Commission so far estimates that around 77 percent of the 23 million registered voters turned out to cast their ballots. However, election officials say the final turnout figure could be as high as 80 percent.

ANC's leader Zuma is poised to take over the nation's highest office after overcoming a rape charge and repeated corruption charges that he dismissed as politically motivated.

While provisional results from each voting station are being released before the final totals, final official results are not expected before Saturday.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.