ANC expects to sweep the polls

JOHANNESBURG – South Africans lined up before sunrise yesterday to vote in an election energised by the hugely popular Jacob Zuma, who has overcome scandals and helped generate an excitement not seen since the country’s first multiracial vote in 1994.

Zuma, one of the African National Congress party’s most popular leaders ever, is now poised to become president. The poor black majority connects with his deprived background and he also has promised to speed up delivery of jobs, houses, schools and clinics.
The ANC was expecting an overwhelming victory in the parliamentary election. The emergence of a party that broke away from the ANC, while not expected to be a formidable challenger, did force the ANC to campaign more aggressively.
Parliament elects South Africa’s president, putting Zuma in line for the post when the new assembly votes in May after he survived corruption and sex scandals that once threatened to derail his political career.
‘Never did I think as I was growing up here that one day I would cast my vote here as I am doing,’ he told reporters in the rural Zulu heartland of eastern South Africa where he voted yesterday. ‘It must be great, feeling the difference from the olden days to where we are today, when we can decide our own fate.’
The 67-year-old former ANC guerrilla, who was imprisoned for 10 years on Robben Island alongside Nelson Mandela and other heroes of the anti-apartheid struggle, was greeted by about 100 supporters. They cheered and broke into his signature song from the anti-apartheid era, ‘Umshini Wami,’ which means ‘Bring Me My Machine Gun.’
In Johannesburg, crowds also cheered and sang for Mandela as the anti-apartheid icon cast his vote. People had waited after voting themselves at Mandela’s station, and others came from elsewhere in town just to see him. Mandela, frail at 90, smiled broadly but did not speak.
The ANC sees Zuma as its first leader to energise voters since Mandela became South Africa’s first black president in 1994. Mandela appeared on Sunday alongside Zuma at his final campaign rally.
In the early afternoon, chief elections official Brigalia Bam reported that, overall, voting was progressing well all across South Africa’s nine provinces. A record number of people – more than 23 million – have registered to vote and election officials were expecting a turnout of about 80 percent.
Samuel Kekana, a 46-year-old security guard who was among the early risers lining up to vote in Soweto, said he was voting for the ANC, crediting it with building schools and houses and improving education since first taking power in 1994. Kekana said he had voted in that election and every one since.
‘This is an opportunity for us to make our mark,’ he said. ‘I didn’t want to miss this.’
– Nampa-AP