South Africa’s ANC Votes On New Leader in All-Night Ballot
Local Editor
Thousands of delegates from South Africa's ruling ANC party cast secret ballots throughout the night Monday to choose their next leader after repeated delays to a ballot seen as decisive moment in the country's post-apartheid history.
The only two candidates in the tight race are Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, a wealthy businessman, and former minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, President Jacob Zuma's ex-wife.
One of those two would be well placed to be the country's next president in 2019 elections.
Voting started soon after midnight on Sunday and continued into the morning after repeated delays due to disputes over which delegates were qualified to vote, with hundreds of attendees banned from the poll.
By Monday morning, most of the 4,776 delegates had cast their ballots.
The result was expected later Monday, though it was unclear how long counting would take.
ANC spokesman Khusela Sangoni told reporters that the process was "proceeding smoothly".
On Sunday, rival supporters sang and chanted in the conference hall outside Johannesburg as the vote was repeatedly pushed back due to disputes over delegates' credentials.
Ramaphosa-supporting delegate Siya Kolase told AFP after voting early on Monday that he was confident his candidate would emerge victorious.
With public support for the ANC falling, the party that has ruled since 1994 when Nelson Mandela won the first multi-racial vote could struggle to retain its grip on power in the 2019 general election.
Zuma, whose rule has been marred by graft scandals, will step down as ANC chief at the meeting but will remain as head of state ahead of the 2019 vote.
In his farewell address, Zuma appealed for unity in a party riven by bitter factions, and blamed the decline in the ANC's popularity on "perceptions in society that we are soft on corruption, self-serving and arrogant".
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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