South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) party is projected to lose its parliamentary majority after 30 years with more than 99 percent of votes counted on Saturday in the historic election. ANC received about 40 percent vote in Wednesday’s election, leaving them short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela. The ANC will be forced to form a coalition to govern South Africa. The final results are still to be formally declared by the independent Electoral Commission that ran the election, but the ANC cannot pass 50 per cent according to projections. The ANC swept to power in 1994 on a pledge to “build a better life for all,” winning almost 63% of the vote in the country’s first democratic election.
