The ruling African National
Congress (ANC) has won the 2014 general elections, thus securing President
Jacob Zuma's second term in office, the country's Independent Electoral
Commission (IEC) officially announced on Saturday.
The ANC received 249 seats in the
National Assembly dropping 15 seats compared to the 2009 elections while the
official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA) received 89 seats, and
newcomers the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) received 25, the third highest
number, IEC chairwoman Pansy Tlakula announced at the release of the final
election results in Pretoria.
Among over 25 million registered
voters, 73.43 percent voters turned out in 22,263 polling stations on Wednesday
to elect the new National Assembly and provincial legislatures.The 73.43
percent voter turnout during the general elections showed that democracy was
thriving, Tlakula said.
"Today we celebrate two
decades of democracy and conclude the fifth democratic national and provincial
elections, we can confirm to the world democracy is well and thriving in this
land," she said.
The ANC has won a fifth
consecutive success with a 62.16 percent share of the votes, down from the 65.9
it got in the 2009 elections. The leading opposition party DA won 22.22 percent
up from 16.66 percent in 2009, achieving its best ever result comparing with
previous elections, and the newly-formed Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) won
more than 1 million votes as 6. 35 percent.
The SA National Assembly consists
of 400 members elected by proportional representation with a closed list
approach. Two hundred members were elected from national party lists; the other
200 were elected from provincial party lists in each of the nine provinces.
The President of South Africa
will be chosen by the National Assembly after the election. The premiers of
each province will be chosen by the winning majority in each provincial
legislature. The 2014 general elections are the first since the death in
December of Nelson Mandela, and also the fifth election since the end of the
apartheid era in 1994.
Original article: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/africa/2014-05/11/c_126484916.htm