The official announcement of election results was made by the chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission on Saturday at the Commission’s headquarters.
The results reflect an emphatic victory for the ruling party despite a relative loss of some seats and voters to the opposition. The major point of note is the rise of the formerly nonexistent Economic Freedom Fighters, who from nowhere managed to amass twenty six seats in the legislature.
It is also interesting to note the increase in the number of seats that were obtained by the official opposition to the ANC, the Democratic Alliance. This time around, the Hellen Zille led party managed to account for just under a third of all the vote in an election that saw more than eighteen million voters take to the polling stations to exercise their democratic right.
In response to the announcement of election results, Julius Malema has said that his party has dedicated the party’s election results to the more than two hundred Nigerian girls that were kidnapped by the Boko Haram and that are suspected to have been sold to other rebels for as little as two hundred rand.
The announcement of the results has left a wave of politically motivated violent protests. The protest apparently emerged after the preliminary announcement of results indicated that the ruling party was headed for yet another landslide victory. When the police were called in to quell the demonstrations, the residents accused them of using live ammunition to disperse the crowds. The police have denied these accusations and have counter accused the protestors of turning violent.
Meanwhile, in an unusual show of decision making and action, president Jacob Zuma has deployed the army to help stop the protest. It also emerged that the residents in the strife-torn Alexandra in the north of Johannesburg refused to speak to the members of the media for fear of victimization. On the other hand, some media sources say that the protests were turning out to be more xenophobic, with the majority of victims being those of Somali origin.
