South African president Cyril Ramaphosa casts his vote during the South African elections in Soweto, South Africa, on May 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

South Africa was heading closer to the reality of a national coalition government for the first time on Friday as partial election results put the ruling African National Congress well short of a majority.

With more than half of votes counted across the country’s nine provinces, the ANC had received just under 42% of the national vote. That represented a huge drop from the 57.5% it received in the last national election in 2019, although the final results from Wednesday’s election have not yet been declared.

The commission that runs the election said those would be announced by Sunday, possibly sooner.

The count from more than 13,000 of the 23,000 polling stations raised the strong possibility that the ANC would need a coalition partner to form a government and re-elect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second and final term.

The leader of South Africa’s main Opposition party said he was open to working with the ANC, although he would have to first speak with a group of other parties that he has a preelection agreement with.

“The way to rescue South Africa is to break the ANC’s majority and we have done that,” said John Steenhuisen, the leader of the Democratic Alliance party.

The ANC is widely expected to still be the biggest party and to have the most seats in parliament.