The ruling party "African National Congress" (ANC) for the first time in 30 years lost its monomajority in the parliament of the Republic of South Africa.
According to the election commission, after counting 98% of the ballots, the ANC received only 40.2% of the votes. This is the worst result in the history of the party, ruling out the possibility of forming a monomajority, which the ANC has always had since winning the first post-apartheid elections in 1994, when Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa.
The opposition Democratic Alliance party, popular among white citizens, businesses and intellectuals, won 21.69% of the vote. Former president Jacob Zuma's Spear of the Nation party won 14.7%, while the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters won 9.4% of the vote. The total turnout at the elections was 58.6%.
The Associated Press notes that in order to increase the country's investment attractiveness, the ANC would be better off uniting with the Democratic Alliance.
Within two weeks after the announcement of the election results, the parliament must elect the country's president. Since 2018, this position has been held by Cyril Ramaphosa from the ANC. He has been criticized for increasing poverty and unemployment, which particularly affects the black population of South Africa, which has been the ANC's main constituency for many years.
