Former President Uhuru Kenyatta, who leads the African Union Election Observation Mission (AUEOM), attended a briefing on the status of the recently concluded IEC General Elections at the Results Operation Centre at the Gallagher Convention Centre in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Speaking to the media, Kenyatta thanked the South African people for their patience despite the major delays in the process.
He complimented their tenacity and urged greater patience while also expressing confidence in the electoral commission's capacity to confront and resolve the concerns in the future.
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President Kenyatta emphasized his trust in the election system and the need to remain calm and confident in the democratic process.
Preliminary results showed on Thursday that South Africa's ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), might lose its 30-year parliamentary majority.
While Nelson Mandela's party appeared to be the most powerful political force, such an outcome would compel it to form a coalition with other parties for the first time in the country's post-apartheid era.
With results from 42.1% of voting stations, the ANC received 42.7% of the vote on Wednesday. It received 57.5% of the vote in the last election in 2019.
According to the provisional results from the election commission, the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA) is in second position with 23.6%.
uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), a new party led by former president Jacob Zuma, was at 10% and eating into ANC support, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal - his home province and a traditional ruling party stronghold.
