South Africa may be on the brink of a situation akin to Nigeria’s controversial 2023 presidential election, marked by widespread allegations of rigging by the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Yakubu Mahmood, in favor of former Lagos State Governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
This is happening as South Africa’s electoral commission website experienced downtime on Friday, precisely as the nation tabulated votes from a pivotal election where the ruling ANC faced the prospect of losing its majority.
“We apologise for the issue with our public-facing NPE system, and are working on restoring service”, the commission said.
“The results system is still operational, and local offices continue to capture results,” it said.
READ ALSO: South Africa’s Court Rules Zuma ‘Not Eligible’ For Presidential Election Over Corruption Charges
After counting a third of the votes from Wednesday’s election, the ANC was in the lead, but with a modest 42 percent, significantly lower than its 2019 victory of 57 percent.
Following closely behind was the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) with 25 percent. The leftist Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and former South African president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) were tied, each garnering approximately nine percent of the votes.
The final tally is anticipated within the next three days.
AFP
Follow the Parallel Facts channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaCQSAoHgZWiDjR3Kn2E
