South Africa leader under pressure after election blow

BBC:

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is under growing pressure after leading the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to its worst election result in 30 years, forcing it to share power.

With almost all the votes in, the ANC is on 40% – down from 58% at the previous election.

This is lower than the party’s feared worse-case scenario of 45%, analysts say,

The ANC has always polled above 50% since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, which saw Nelson Mandela become president.

But support for the party has been dropping significantly due to anger over high levels of corruption, unemployment and crime.

Citing the cost-of-living crisis and frequent power-cuts, a woman told the BBC she ended a 30 year voting streak for the ANC in favour of the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) this time.

“This result is not good. I wanted it out of government. We need to give someone else a chance,” she said

The final results will be announced at 18:00 local time (17:00 BST) on Sunday, the BBC understands.