South Africa’s election commission completed a vote count that confirms the ruling African National Congress as the winner but also shows the strengthening of prominent opposition groups, according to results released yesterday. The government said the election and its aftermath had gone smoothly, despite some scattered delays and disruptions, and an outbreak of street violence in a poor area of Johannesburg.
With all 22,000 voting districts counted, the African National Congress had 62.15 percent of the vote, several percentage points lower than its result in 2009 elections, the election commission said on its website. The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, won 22.23 percent of the vote, an increase of more than 5 percent from 2009. The Economic Freedom Fighters, a new party that wants to distribute national resources to the poor, won 6.35 percent.
