Electoral Commission of South Africa, on Thursday, released the results of the 2021 Local Government Elections, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) suffering significant losses.
The ANC’s nationwide support has decreased from 53.91 percent in 2016 to 46.04 percent this year, their lowest ever in a democratic election.
The Democratic Alliance (DA), a major opposition party, saw its nationwide support drop from 26.9% to 21.84 percent.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), the other recognized opposition party, received 10.42 percent of the vote.
The ANC won a majority in 161 of the 213 municipalities it ran in. In 13 municipalities, the DA won a majority of votes. With a majority in ten municipalities, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) came in third.
The DA won eight metropolitan municipalities, while the ANC retained control of Mangaung and Buffalo City. No party received more than 50% of the vote in the remaining five metros, including economic center Johannesburg and Tshwane, where the administrative capital Pretoria is located.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa, just 12.3 million of the country’s 26.1 million registered voters cast ballots.
Addressing the announcement of the election results, President Cyril Ramaphosa said a record 325 political parties and nearly 95,000 candidates participated in the local government elections, of whom over 1,500 were independent candidates.
“This is a sign that multiparty politics is flourishing in South Africa, and that everyone has an equal chance and opportunity to run for public office,” he said.
Xinhua