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 per cent down from 58 per cent at the previous election.
This is lower than the party’s feared worst-case scenario of 45 per cent, analysts say.
The ANC has always polled above 50 per cent since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, which saw Nelson Mandela become president.
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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, one woman told the BBC she had voted for the ANC for the past 30 years but had backed the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) this time.
“This result is not good. I wanted it out of the 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.
The ANC leadership, including President Ramaphosa, is currently discussing the way forward and preparing for complex coalition talks, a source told the BBC.
Its options are a coalition with the DA, which is in second place on 22 per cent or the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party led by former President Jacob Zuma, on 15 per cent.
The radical Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is on 9 per cent, so a coalition of those two parties would fall just short of the required 50 per cent.
The new parliament must be sworn in within two weeks of the final results and the new president would normally be chosen then.
MK supporters have been celebrating overnight in Durban, the biggest city in the party’s heartland of KwaZulu-Natal province. The party was only formed in September.
ANC chairperson Gwede Mantashe said his party was unlikely to form an alliance with the DA.
He said there would have to be “policy alignment” between parties to form a coalition agreement. (BBC)
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