admin
Zimpapers Politics Hub
South Africans are voting today in elections that will lead to the election of a new to take the country forward for the next five years.
According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s statement, polling stations opened around 7am with no major incidents or glitches.
Voters are casting their votes for the national and provincial elections to elect a new National Assembly and state legislators. The National Assembly will choose the president for the next five years.
This is the country’s seventh democratic general election since apartheid ended in 1994 when founding President Nelson Mandela was elected President with the ANC winning 62.5 percent of the 400 seats in the National Assembly.
How the President is elected?
South Africans do no directly vote for the President. The 400 elected members of the National Assembly are the ones that elect the President by a simple majority – 201 or more votes determine the presidency.
Since 1994, the ruling ANC has always gotten an outright majority in the National Assembly. If the ANC secures more than 50 percent of the seats, President Cyril Ramaphosa who is the ruling party’s President will be re-elected President to serve his second and final five-year terms.
RELATED STORIES
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter