ANC down to about 32 percent in the count: South Africa's ruling party heads for a historic low in local elections

South Africa's early municipal election results have shown the African National Congress (ANC) with a sharply reduced vote share, weakening the long-dominant party's grip. Data from the election commission late on Thursday showed the ANC on about 32 percent of the vote, with more than 60 percent of votes counted in this week's municipal elections.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) was in second place at 25 percent. Former President Jacob Zuma's breakaway opposition uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party was in third place with 8.5 percent, below the levels suggested by opinion polls.

About 15.9 million of 29.2 million registered voters cast ballots, the electoral commission said, putting turnout at an estimated 54.5 percent, up from 46 percent in the pandemic-hit 2021 local elections.

The ANC has been South Africa's largest party since it led the country out of apartheid in 1994, but it has tended to do worse in municipal elections than nationally and has acknowledged its failures in local governance. From nearly 70 percent of the national vote in 2004, the ANC fell below 50 percent for the first time in the 2021 municipal elections, winning 46 percent.

At the 2024 national elections, the ANC managed just over 40 percent and was forced to accept a unity government with nine other parties, including the DA. The party, now led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has borne the brunt of criticism over years of municipal mismanagement that have left South Africans grappling with failing water supplies, persistent power cuts and crumbling public services. It has also faced corruption allegations, while splinter parties have eaten away at its support base.

Control of the country's eight major metropolitan municipalities is up for grabs in this vote, alongside dozens of district and local councils. The results will offer a key measure of voter sentiment ahead of the 2029 general election.

The MK party had been tipped as one of the few parties capable of securing an outright majority in the eastern port city of Durban, but projections by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), a state-funded research body, put its support there at 32 percent.

The DA, meanwhile, was forecast to retain control of the tourist magnet Cape Town with 56 percent of the vote, with its leader, Geordin Hill-Lewis, already declaring victory. The party was also leading with 34 percent in Johannesburg, the country's financial capital, after a campaign spearheaded by its former leader, Helen Zille, 75, according to CSIR projections.

With outright majorities far from assured in several major cities, the results could usher in another round of complex coalition negotiations, with parties bargaining to assemble the alliances needed to govern.