South Africa's ruling African National Congress (ANC) party has lost its absolute majority for the first time in three decades, the country's electoral commission announced on Saturday following this week's parliamentary polls.
With 97.51% of the votes counted, the ANC stood at 40.11% on Saturday morning, the IEC electoral commission said. The preliminary partial result shows a massive loss of power for the ruling party of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
For the first time in the country's history, the party once led by anti-apartheid fighter Nelson Mandela will have to form a coalition.
Over the past 30 years, since the start of democracy in 1994, the ANC has always won an absolute majority and governed the continent's strongest economy alone.
The economically liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) came in at 21.71%, according to preliminary partial results, while the party founded only six months ago by former president Jacob Zuma, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), stood at 14.84%. The Marxist-influenced party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) garnered 9.37% of the votes.
Political commentators largely attribute the ANC's historic loss of power - nearly 17 percentage points since the 2019 parliamentary elections - to the new establishment of the MK, while also pointing to the party's weak governing record.
The southern African country of 61 million people suffers from a struggling economy, mass unemployment, dilapidated state-owned enterprises, regular power outages, as well as high crime and corruption.
Members of 52 parties competed in the May 29 election for the parliament's 400 seats. Once the results are announced, the newly elected parliament must form a government and elect a president within 14 days. Provincial governments were also newly elected.