Retired President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is the head of the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM), on Thursday attended a briefing on the progress of results from the recently concluded IEC General Elections at the Results Operation Centre at Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Speaking to members of the media, Kenyatta expressed gratitude to the people of South Africa for their patience during the significant delays experienced in the process.
He praised their resilience and called for more patience while expressing confidence in the electoral commission’s ability to address and resolve the issues going forward.
President Kenyatta emphasized his trust in the electoral system and his belief in the importance of maintaining calm and confidence in the democratic process.
Preliminary results indicated on Thursday that South Africa’s ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), could lose the parliamentary majority it has held for 30 years.
While the party of the late Nelson Mandela looked likely to remain the largest political force, such an outcome would push it into a coalition with other parties for the first time in the country’s post-apartheid history.
With results in from 42.1% of polling stations, the ANC had garnered 42.7% of votes in Wednesday’s poll. It won 57.5% of votes in the previous election in 2019.
The partial results released by the electoral commission put the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) in second place on 23.6%.
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, was at 10% and eating into ANC support, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal – his home province and a traditional stronghold of the ruling party.
