ANC clinches biggest election win

JOHANNESBURG – President Thabo Mbeki’s African National Congress yesterday cruised to its biggest electoral landslide in 10 years of power in South Africa, bagging almost 70 per cent of the vote, preliminary results showed.

Africa’s oldest liberation movement, which forced an end to some five decades of white racist rule, won a two-thirds majority – a magical figure it had failed to garner in the country’s last two democratic elections. The ANC announced a victory party in Johannesburg on Friday with Mbeki due to attend.Lagging way behind the ANC in second place was the Democratic Alliance with 13,6 per cent of the vote, results from 50,5 per cent of counted ballots showed.As Mbeki sailed towards another five years in power, the party issued a statement declaring that it had won a “decisive mandate to fight poverty and create work” from voters from all races and classes.The ANC statement said the party had consolidated its electoral appeal among people from all races and sections of society.Although the ANC had been expected to win a crushing victory according to opinion surveys in the run-up to the polls, there were some surprises.Scoring far better than expected was a new political party, the Independent Democrats led by outspoken politician and AIDS campaigner Patricia De Lille, who won around two per cent of the vote, according to the latest results.Analysts said De Lille, who is of mixed race, had picked up a lot of the votes from the so-called coloureds, especially in the Western Cape province – a stronghold for white parties.The New National Party (NNP), the successor to the National Party which for decades was the backbone of the apartheid regime, got around two per cent of the vote, its worst drubbing, and appeared set for political oblivion.With the ANC’s victory on the national level secure, all eyes turned to the party’s showing in two electoral battlegrounds in the provinces where it was seeking to win control.In eastern KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC is locked in a battle with the Zulu dominated Inkatha Freedom Party, which has ruled the province since 1994 but are still in a neck-and-neck race.But it looked set to win in the Western Cape, a bastion of white parties, where the New National Party was decimated.However, despite the ANC’s record showing, Mbeki faces Herculean challenges as he heads for a second term from an increasingly angry and impatient public to deliver on his pledges to turn the tide on AIDS, poverty and unemployment.- Nampa-AFPThe ANC announced a victory party in Johannesburg on Friday with Mbeki due to attend.Lagging way behind the ANC in second place was the Democratic Alliance with 13,6 per cent of the vote, results from 50,5 per cent of counted ballots showed.As Mbeki sailed towards another five years in power, the party issued a statement declaring that it had won a “decisive mandate to fight poverty and create work” from voters from all races and classes.The ANC statement said the party had consolidated its electoral appeal among people from all races and sections of society.Although the ANC had been expected to win a crushing victory according to opinion surveys in the run-up to the polls, there were some surprises.Scoring far better than expected was a new political party, the Independent Democrats led by outspoken politician and AIDS campaigner Patricia De Lille, who won around two per cent of the vote, according to the latest results.Analysts said De Lille, who is of mixed race, had picked up a lot of the votes from the so-called coloureds, especially in the Western Cape province – a stronghold for white parties.The New National Party (NNP), the successor to the National Party which for decades was the backbone of the apartheid regime, got around two per cent of the vote, its worst drubbing, and appeared set for political oblivion.With the ANC’s victory on the national level secure, all eyes turned to the party’s showing in two electoral battlegrounds in the provinces where it was seeking to win control.In eastern KwaZulu-Natal, where the ANC is locked in a battle with the Zulu dominated Inkatha Freedom Party, which has ruled the province since 1994 but are still in a neck-and-neck race.But it looked set to win in the Western Cape, a bastion of white parties, where the New National Party was decimated.However, despite the ANC’s record showing, Mbeki faces Herculean challenges as he heads for a second term from an increasingly angry and impatient public to deliver on his pledges to turn the tide on AIDS, poverty and unemployment.- Nampa-AFP