South Africa: what to expect for the May 29 elections?

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South Africa at a time of choice, during crucial elections. The battle which promises to be very tough between the main parties; This is evidenced by these campaign posters just ten days before the election.

These elections will surely test the remaining love between the people and their African National Congress party - in power since the end of the anti-apartheid struggle 30 years ago.

President Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC are struggling to retain their parliamentary majority and opinion polls predict the party will likely win less than 50% of the national vote for the first time in the May 29 election.

This does not mean the beleaguered ANC will no longer be in power in Africa's most advanced economy.

Although the famous organization once led by Nelson Mandela has seen its popularity decline, no one has risen to the level of replacement.

Rather, some South Africans who have turned away from the ANC have sought answers from a range of opposition parties.

The ANC is therefore expected to win the majority of the vote.

But without an absolute majority, he would have to form a coalition to remain in government and keep Ramaphosa for a second and final term as president.

For a key country on the African continent, this could lead to further complications, given that some recent local-level coalitions have been spectacular failures.

While most South Africans appear ready to express their dissatisfaction with the ANC in a decisive moment, a coalition government may not easily resolve the country's major problems, which include unemployment and unemployment levels. highest inequality in the world.

“The coalitions in the different metros (municipalities) have also taught us that they are not based on any principles, and if we could have that, it is possible that we could still be heading towards great instability in South Africa,” he said. Dr Levy Ndou, a policy analyst at Tshwane University of Technology, told the Associated Press:

“In my opinion, this is something our leaders should try to avoid.

South Africans do not vote directly for their president, but decide on the composition of Parliament, called the National Assembly.

They do this by choosing parties that win seats in Parliament based on their share of the national vote.

The National Assembly, which has 400 members, then elects the president, meaning the party with the majority chooses the head of state.

Since the first multiracial elections in 1994, the ANC has always been in the majority, but this time it may have to strike deals with other parties in order to secure the 201 votes needed to re-elect Mr Ramaphosa, aged 71 years, and form a government.

Elections actually begin on Friday and Saturday, when South African citizens living abroad vote at embassies and foreign missions.

The main election will take place on May 29 in all nine provinces. They will determine the composition of the national and provincial legislative assemblies.

Just over 27 million people, out of a population of 62 million, are registered to vote in what is only the country's seventh fully democratic national election since the dismantling of apartheid.

Seventy political parties are registered for the vote, the largest number ever, and independent candidates will be allowed to run for the first time.

The fate of the ANC is making headlines: Ramaphosa is the party's leader and the face of its campaign.

The main opposition is the centrist Democratic Alliance (DA). She struck a deal with a few smaller parties in the hope that their combined votes could force the ANC out of government altogether.

Polls indicate they are far from the mark.

The far-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) is the third largest party and is led by Julius Malema, a former ANC youth leader.

In the last national elections, the DA received 20% of the vote and the EFF 10%, compared to 62% for the ANC.

Neither opposition party appears to have seen a significant increase in popularity. This is largely because dozens of other parties, many of them new, achieved low market shares.

While 80% of South Africa's population is black, it is a multiracial and multicultural society, with five defined racial groups, numerous ethnicities and 12 official languages. An equally diverse political picture is beginning to take shape.

Among the new parties, uMkhonto weSizwe (meaning Spear of the Nation) has attracted the most attention because it is led by former South African President Jacob Zuma, who turned his back on the ANC that he once led in a bitter struggle with Ramaphosa, the man who replaced him.

Unemployment and poverty are the most pressing problems for the majority of the population.

Although South Africa is considered the most advanced country in Africa, its contradictions are glaring. The unemployment rate there is 32% - the highest in the world - and more than half of South Africans live in poverty, according to the World Bank.

This situation is at the root of much of the discontent, as millions of poor black people feel that the ANC has not sufficiently improved their living conditions, three decades after apartheid, which brutally oppressed black people in the benefit of the white minority.

The high rate of violent crime, multiple government corruption scandals over the years, the failure of some basic public services, and a crisis within the state-owned electricity supply company that led to power cuts. Electricity at regular intervals across the country to save energy are other major electoral issues that are seen as driving voters away from the ANC.

These cuts eased as the elections approached, but they angered the population and worsened the situation of a struggling economy.