.webpSouth Africa will hold crucial national elections on May 29 as polls show that the ruling African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time since coming to power with the fall of Apartheid, 30 years ago. President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the date on Tuesday, at a time when Africa’s most developed economy faces a myriad of problems under his ANC party. These problems include record unemployment, an electricity crisis that has led to crippling blackouts for homes and businesses, and widespread distrust among voters following a series of corruption allegations over the years. Several polls predict that the party, once widely admired around the world and led by Nelson Mandela, will fall below 50 percent of votes for the first time since it won the first elections in South Africa in 1994, heralding a new democracy after the end of white minority rule. If it loses its majority, the ANC will have to enter a coalition to remain in government and maintain Ramaphosa – a political protégé of Mandela – as president for a second and final five-year term. South Africa has never had a coalition at national level due to the dominance of the ANC. In general elections, South Africans vote for a party and not a presidential candidate. Parties are then allocated seats in the 400-seat Parliament according to their share of the vote, and legislators elect the President. The ANC is expected to continue to win the majority of votes, but a poll points to a drastic drop to less than 40 percent. South Africa’s main opposition party, the centrist Democratic Alliance, is in talks to form a coalition of opposition parties with the aim of forcing the ANC out of government completely, although all of these parties would have to considerably increase their share of votes to collectively exceed 50 percent. The third largest party, the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF, is not involved in that opposition coalition, but has been attracting more support from the ANC and was the only one of the three main parties to increase its share in recent years. general elections. Source: O País
Tradução automática do artigo:Aceder ao artigo original