South Africa is set to conduct national and provincial elections on May 29, as announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office on Tuesday.
These elections are expected to be the most fiercely contested since the abolition of the apartheid system.
Almost 370 parties are eligible to participate in the election, which will be the first in which independent candidates can compete for national and provincial office after parliament amended the electoral laws.
What Ramaphosa said:
“Beyond the fulfilment of our constitutional obligation, these upcoming elections are also a celebration of our democratic journey and a determination of the future that we all desire,”
“I call on all South Africans to exercise their democratic right to vote and for those who will be campaigning to do so peacefully, within the full observance of the law,” he said.
President Ramaphosa, seeking a second term, has struggled to lift economic growth since assuming the presidency in 2018, succeeding Jacob Zuma.
Political observers widely forecast that the African National Congress (ANC), the ruling party, is likely to experience a loss of its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994.
Voter grievances, including persistent power cuts, inadequate service delivery, and elevated unemployment rates, contribute to this prediction.
South Africa has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world and is ranked by the Thomas Piketty-backed World Inequality Lab as the most unequal country in the world for which data is available.
