South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Wednesday that the country’s next general elections will take place on May 29.
“Beyond the fulfillment of our constitutional obligation, these upcoming elections are also a celebration of our democratic journey and a determination of the future that we all desire,” President Ramaphosa said in a statement.
Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party, which has ruled South Africa since the country’s first post-apartheid elections in 1994, is at risk of losing its parliamentary majority for the first time. Several voter opinion surveys show the ANC with an approval rate below 50%.
The ANC has been mired in years of problems and controversies, including soaring violent crime, record unemployment, an electricity crisis that has led to rolling blackouts, and corruption allegations dating to the presidency of Jacob Zuma, Ramaphosa’s predecessor.
The ANC’s biggest rivals are the Democratic Alliance, which is trying to build a coalition of smaller parties to cut into the ANC’s majority, and the leftist Economic Freedom Fighters party.
The party that wins the most seats in the 400-seat parliament will elect the president. Ramaphosa is seeking his second and final five-year term.
Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse.
