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PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) - South Africa’s long-dominant governing party was racing against itself Friday, leaving its opponents far behind and closing in on its goal of doing as well or better than in the last elections.
The African National Congress swept the first post-apartheid election in 1994 and the two following that. In 2004, it took 69.69 percent of the parliamentary vote. If the ANC fails to at least match that this year, it will be seen as a message from voters that they want to see some limits on the party.
A two-thirds majority allows the ANC to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged, or to change the constitution.
Zuma told several thousand supporters gathered on a blocked-off street outside his party’s downtown Johannesburg headquarters Thursday that skeptics who had said the ANC wouldn’t get 60 percent of the parliamentary vote now "are saying 70."
