SOUTH AFRICAN ELECTIONS

The African National Congress(ANC), led by Jacob Zuma, is expected again to win the elections underway in South Africa. It is now fifteen years since the collapse of the Apartheid regime.

Zuma is an colourful personality, although a poor orator it seem, follows in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela, whose overt endorsement was not given, and Thabo Mbeki. This video from Al Jazeera gives some background:

Robyn Dixon in The Chicago Tribune voices some of the disquiet and makes the obvious comparison:

His victory certain, Zuma will take power at a difficult time: the sharply declining economy will leave his government little wiggle room for grand new programs.

Many liberals fear a Zuma presidency after his hints at a return to the death penalty and his veiled threats to take on the judiciary and news media. The Zuma faction’s willingness to jostle fragile democratic institutions is one reason for disquiet. During his battle to evade charges of corruption and fraud, which were dropped two weeks ago, supporters attacked the judiciary as conspiring to keep him from power and threatened to “kill for Zuma.”

His opponents see the dropping of charges as ushering in a compromised and potentially corrupt elite. Doomsday warnings that South Africa may follow Zimbabwe’s downward path have become common.

Support for the ANC among African voters may not be as monolithic as it has been in the past.

UPDATE:

Early results of the ballot according to Bloomsberg, suggest that the status qua will prevail. The breakaway, Congress of the People, is polling about 8%, in what I assume is a winner-take-all, simple plurality, system, so that is not a good result for them. The reported 80% turnout is impressive.

Needless to observe, this election and its aftermath, will be significant not just for South Africa but for the continent. Let’s hope for the best.

Further results should appear at SABC News.

Jacob Zuma might have to select from among his wives who gets the gig as First Lady. He might have had to deal with the question before, which would fully equip him as a politician of the first order.

UPDATE:

In The Guardian, Alex Duval reports that the ANC just fell short of winning a two-thirds majority with 65.9% of the vote. There was an impressive 77% turnout. This relative failure can be attributed to the Congress of the People, a political party founded four months ago. The Democratic Alliance was elected to lead  the provincial government of Western Cape.

Why does the political system in South Africa, post Apartheid, remind me so much of India?

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