On the 9 May 2009, African National Congress President Jacob Zuma will become the President of South Africa. This comes after the ANC won an outright majority in the country’s fourth democratic elections which were held on the 22 April.

Before these elections, there was much talk from political and media analysts that the ANC would lose much of its support to the newly formed Congress of the People. This follows after former president Thabo Mbeki, was recalled from the presidential office, causing much of the electorate to lose confidence in the ruling party. This belief was fuelled by the increase in the number of registered first time voters since 1994, as this seemingly indicated an increase in the number of people disillusioned by the ANC. As the first day of counting drew to a close across South Africa however, it became clear that the ANC still had a vice grip over the majority of the vote of the people. In the end, the party obtained 65.9% of the national vote, just shy of the highly anticipated two thirds majority, proving once again that the ANC was still the people’s party and that Jacob Zuma would became the number one citizen of the Republic.

Many analysts had assumed the vote would swing away from the party with COPE taking a large portion of the ANC vote. This election victory can thus easily be described as momentous, as the party seems to have come out of an apparent crisis, with much of its support still intact. Despite the formation of break-away party COPE and the numerous legal woes which have plagued Jacob Zuma (which saw many people questioning his eligibility to stand for public office), 65.9% of registered South Africans still voted in favour of the charismatic leader.

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