JOHANNESBURG — South Africa's governing African National Congress was heading for its weakest national showing in a local government election, with the Electoral Commission's partial count placing the party on about 32 per cent of the vote with 90 per cent of ballots counted on 6 November.

Source: Electoral Commission of South Africa count via London Daily News

At the same stage the Democratic Alliance stood near 24 per cent, and the MK party of former president Jacob Zuma was on 9.3 per cent nationally. With more than 80 per cent of ballots counted, the commission had the ANC on 31.8 per cent, almost 14 percentage points below its result at the 2021 local elections, when it won 45.6 per cent.

The CSIR, which produces projections from the count, estimated a final share of 31 per cent for the ANC and 24.5 per cent for the Democratic Alliance. Turnout was estimated at 54.5 per cent of registered voters, against 46 per cent at the previous local elections five years earlier — a rise of more than eight points. Bloomberg, reporting the commission's figures at an earlier stage, likewise put the ANC at 31.9 per cent and the DA at 24.6 per cent.

At 5 p.m. on 6 November the commission put national result completion at 91 per cent. None of these figures is final: shares will move as outstanding ballots are added, and the commission has not declared a national result.

Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal

The ANC was projected to lose its status as the largest party in Gauteng and in KwaZulu-Natal, the country's two most populous provinces, where the MK party was expected to finish first. In Johannesburg, the country's commercial capital, earlier commission figures reported by The Guardian put the DA leading with about 40 per cent of the vote while the ANC stood at 17.5 per cent. The ANC has governed nationally since 1994, and a share below a third of the local government vote would be its weakest result in that period.

Coalition talks

With no party close to a majority in the big cities, coalition talks began between parties while counting continued. In the large metropolitan councils, control will rest on agreements rather than on one party's tally, and the ANC's projected loss of first place in both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal removes its claim to enter those negotiations as the largest party.

What happens next

Final results were expected to be announced on Sunday 8 November, together with the allocation of seats across the country's 257 municipal councils. Until then the completed count is the only authoritative account of the vote, no coalition agreement has been announced, and the commission has given no further timetable beyond Sunday.