Zuma leads in S. African presidential elections
Zohaib Ahmad
Issue date: 4/24/09 Section: News
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As of noon Thursday, half the ballots have been counted, according to the BBC
Jacob Zuma leads the African National Congress, the ruling party for 15 years. He had previously been faced with corruption charges that were dismissed by a court weeks before the election.
Zuma and the ANC lead though it is not clear whether they will retain their two-thirds majority, according to the BBC.
Many, including the Economist, the BBC and the Drexel African Students Association, said they believe Zuma and the ANC will win the election.
In a spokeswoman, DASA said that they "strongly believed that Jacob Zuma's ANC will win, and could yet win big."
Even though the ANC is most likely to win, many sources believe this election could spell the end of ANC dominance in South Africa.
"But even if [the ANC] manages to again defeat the opposition threat with apparent ease, the perception of its sacredness has been broken. The signs are everywhere that the ANC's dominance of the electoral arena is crumbling," a spokeswoman for DASA said.
According to the Economist, this could be the beginning of a multi-party democracy in South Africa replacing the current one party dominance of the ANC.
"Some believe, and even more hope, that this could be good for South African democracy," the DASA spokeswoman said.
Voter registration for the election is higher than ever before, with more than 23 million eligible voters.
The ANC's main opposition is the Democratic Alliance, led by Helen Zille, a former anti-apartheid campaigner.
However, this election introduces Congress of the People, the result of a party split in the ANC after former President Thabo Mbeki was ousted in 2008. The presidential candidate for COPE is Bishop Mvume Dandala.
Analysts are attributing the increase in voters to the emergence of COPE last year. On the other hand, Zuma said the emergence of COPE has "re-energized" the ANC.
Political commentator Xolela Mangcu said this would be the first time South Africa will be led by someone not from the educated elite of black society.
"There is a cultural revolution in the ANC," Mangcu said.
Zuma had charges of corruption, racketeering, tax-evasion, money-laundering and fraud against him, but they were dismissed when phone tap recordings of the lead investigator and the prosecutor suggested political interference in the prosecution.
"There is no cloud above my head; there is not even a mist," Zuma said in a press briefing.
According to the Economist, the vast majority of ANC supporters are poor and little-educated blacks (96 percent), while DA supporters are predominantly rich and educated whites (64 percent) with some other races (excluding the black population). COPE is the balance between the two, with a multiracial backing (60 percent black and 18 percent white), mostly older, richer and more educated individuals.
"We Africans in Diaspora hope that the successfulness of the election will once again prove that democracy is fast growing in Africa," the DASA spokeswoman said.
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