South Africa sets May 29 elections that could be the most pivotal since apartheid ended

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa will hold pivotal national elections May 29 as polls show the ruling African National Congress could lose its majority for the first time since it came to power with the fall of apartheid 30 years ago.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the date Tuesday as Africa’s most developed economy faces a myriad of problems under his ANC party. They include record unemployment, an electricity crisis that’s led to crippling blackouts for homes and businesses, and widespread voter mistrust following a stream of corruption allegations over the years.

Several polls predict that the party once widely admired across the world and led by Nelson Mandela will slip below 50% of the vote for the first time since it won South Africa’s first all-race election in 1994 to herald a new democracy following the end of white minority rule.

If it loses its majority, the ANC would need to enter into a coalition to remain in government and keep Ramaphosa — a political protege of Mandela — as president for a second and final five-year term. South Africa has never had a coalition at national level because of the ANC’s dominance.

South Africans vote for a party and not a presidential candidate in a general election. Parties are then allocated places in the 400-seat Parliament according to their share of the vote, and lawmakers elect the president.

The president has always been from the ANC because of its parliamentary majority.

The ANC is still expected to win the largest share of the vote, but one poll has it falling dramatically to less than 40%.

South Africa's main opposition party, the centrist Democratic Alliance, is in talks over forming a coalition of opposition parties aimed at forcing the ANC out of government completely, although all those parties...