South Africa elections: ANC wins absolute majority, but support drops

After a longer-than-expected process of counting and auditing, the South African parliamentary elections concluded on Saturday.

Preliminary results released by the election commission show that president Cyril Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) won re-election with an absolute majority in parliament.

However, with 57.51% of the vote, the ANC’s performance at the national level is at an all-time low.

Charges of corruption, economic instability and unemployment could be seen as the driving force of the fall in popularity of the leading party in Africa’s largest economy.