Election News
South Africa Braces for a Milestone 2024 Election
After 30 years of dominating South Africa politics, the ruling African National Congress will confront its most difficult election this month, with most opinion surveys predicting it will lose its parliamentary majority for the first time.
The ANC’s reputation, once admired under Nelson Mandela’s leadership and regarded as a beacon of hope by the Black majority following the fall of apartheid in 1994, has been tarnished by record levels of unemployment, widespread poverty, the collapse of some government services, and more than a decade of corruption scandals, leaving voters disillusioned.
President Cyril Ramaphosa is hoping for re-election on May 29. However, if the ANC loses its majority, it would be forced to form a government in a coalition, which would be a first for the country and might complicate governing in Africa’s most sophisticated economy.
South Africans do not directly elect their president, but rather vote for parties that are allotted seats in Parliament based on their share of the ballot. Following that, lawmakers select the head of state.
Ramaphosa was a major member in the ANC in the early 1990s, and he was once considered Mandela’s apprentice. He left politics to become a successful businessman before returning to serve as South Africa’s deputy president in 2014. He became president in 2018 when Jacob Zuma resigned amid corruption charges.
Ramaphosa has tried to repair the ANC’s credibility by cracking down on government corruption. However, during his president, unemployment has climbed to 32%, the highest in the world, and he has struggled to reduce poverty.
Electricity Crisis in South Africa
An electricity crisis has caused 62 million power outages across the country as a result of problems at the state-run electricity supplier. It had a negative impact on the economy and Ramaphosa’s reputation as someone who could solve South Africa’s problems, even though the blackouts were caused by mismanagement during the Zuma administration.
The ANC is still projected to win the most votes, but if it obtains less than 50%, it will require coalition partners to reelect Ramaphosa, who is 71 years old.
John Steenhuisen leads the Democratic Alliance, the largest opposition party. The centrist DA has claimed to “rescue” South Africa from the ANC’s corruption and ineptitude, but has yet to win a national election. The DA received 22% of the vote in the last national election in 2019, while the ANC won 62%.
The DA reached a pre-election deal with smaller opposition parties, thinking that their combined vote would secure a majority and depose the ANC. However, they would all need to dramatically expand their share, which is considered implausible.
Economic Freedom Fighters
Steenhuisen, 48, is the sole white leader among South Africa’s major political parties. In a society where race remains at the forefront of national awareness, critics argue that the DA serves the interests of the white minority more than the 80% of South Africans who are Black.
Since its founding in 2013 by Julius Malema, a former ANC youth leader ousted from the ruling party, the Economic Freedom Fighters have risen quickly to become South Africa’s third largest party in Parliament.
His fiery, far-left language has made the 43-year-old South African politician the most divisive, but his argument that the ANC has failed poor, Black South Africans has found momentum, particularly among unemployed and disenfranchised youth.
The EFF has advocated for mine nationalization and land transfer to poor Blacks. The party, which adheres to Marxist doctrine, claims that economic disparity based on race persists decades after apartheid, with whites generally wealthy and Blacks impoverished.
Security concerns for the 2024 election
Malema and other EFF MPs have frequently interrupted opponents’ speeches in Parliament and gotten into scuffles with security personnel, bringing a militant brand of politics to the heart of South Africa’s democracy. The EFF is a potential coalition partner for the ANC, while neither party has stated whether there is an agreement.
Former President Zuma added a fresh dimension when he declared in December that he would leave the ANC he once commanded and return to politics with a new party.
Zuma’s MK Party is unlikely to threaten the top three, but it is expected to severely diminish the ANC vote just as the ruling party confronts its most difficult electoral test. The 81-year-old former leader continues to command support, particularly in his home region of KwaZulu-Natal.
His reemergence has also raised security concerns for the election, as his conviction for contempt of court and subsequent prison sentence in 2021 sparked a week of rioting and looting that resulted in the deaths of over 350 people in South Africa’s worst violence since apartheid’s final days.
Zuma is battling in court over whether his criminal history bans him from running for Parliament. There is concern about unrest if he gets disqualified. Even if he isn’t, his new reputation as an agitator is sure to exacerbate tensions ahead of a key election.
Source: AP
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Election News
Democrats Now Leaderless After Trump Presidential Win
Democrats spent billions of dollars with the legacy media to try and create fear among American voters that Donald Trump posed an imminent threat to democracy; in the end, voters didn’t care. They chose to believe their own eyes and not the rhetoric.
Following Kamala Harris’ decisive loss, the Democrats are now entering a second Trump presidency without a clear leader, a clear plan, or an accord on the reasons for their significant miscalculations in the 2024 election.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent and former Democratic primary candidate, had warned Harris before Election Day that she was focusing too much on flipping Republican votes and not enough on pocketbook issues. He issued a statement excoriating party leadership.
“It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them,” he said. “First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well.
While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they’re right.”
Trump’s promises to impose tariffs on both allies and foes and his threats to American businesses contemplating the relocation of jobs offshore were alluring to union workers.
Alexandra Rojas, the executive director of the far-left Justice Democrats, told AP that the party’s leadership must “accept responsibility for that a second”Donald Trump presidency was once again feasible under their supervision.”
Rojas charged that the Democratic Party is los”ng legitimacy among the everyday people and marginalized communities, who are continuously used as stepping stones to win elections. She also acknowledged that “there are no easy answers for where we as a coun”ry and movement go from here.”
The data indicates that Democrats have” substantial work to do.
Faiz Shakir, the Democratic strategist who oversaw Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, is concerned that Sanders’s Democratic Party will fail to engage in the necessary introspection after this catastrophic defeat.
He asserted that “a healthy party is challenging itself to conduct”that type of autopsy and hear what we did wrong.” “I am not even aware that such a process will occur. He asks, “Will the Democratic Party’s well-paid consultant and big-money interParty learn any real lessons from this disastrous campaign?”
“Will they comprehend the political alienation and pain that tens of millions of Americans are currently experiencing?” Do they have any suggestions for how we can confront the Oligarchy, which is gaining economic and political influence at an accelerated pace? It is unlikely, he said.
Source: AP
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Kamala Concession Speech Trends on Google
One day after former President Donald Trump’s historic re-election, Vice President Kamala Harris conceded the presidential race and vowed to maintain unity. Her concession speech trended on Google with over 5 million searches.
“I do not concede the fight that fueled this campaign, but I do concede this election.” She stated, “In our nation, we owe loyalty not to a president or a party, but to the Constitution of the United States.”
Kamala Harris acknowledged that there was no viable strategy for obtaining the presidency even though her speech was not what she intended.
In the center of Washington, DC, Harris delivered a speech at her alma mater, Howard University. Harris expressed her gratitude to the hundreds of campaign workers and volunteers who worked assiduously on her campaign and to the tens of millions of voters who cast their votes for her.
Kamala Harris also stated that the country should unite for a peaceful power transfer despite the agony of losing.
She said, “We must acknowledge the outcomes of this election.” “I conversed with President-elect Trump earlier today and congratulated him on his victory.”
I also informed him that we would assist him and his team during his transition and participate in a peaceful transfer of power.
In the interim, Sen. Bernie Sanders issued a caustic statement regarding the presidential election results, accusing the Democratic Party of having “abandoned” working-class voters. It’s unsurprising that “a Democratic Party that has abandoned working class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.”
Sanders, who secured re-election last night, stated that the party’s white working-class voters were the first to quit and that it now appears that Latino and Black workers are following suit. “The American people are enraged and desire change despite the Democratic leadership’s defense of the status quo,” he stated. “And they’re right.”
Trump and Vance were also congratulated on their electoral victory by former President Obama, who ardently campaigned for Harris in the final stretch before Election Day. This was announced in a statement published today.
“This is obviously not the outcome we had hoped for, given our profound disagreements with the Republican ticket on a whole host of issues,” according to him. “But living in a democracy is about recognizing that our point of view won’t always win out, and being willing to accept the peaceful transfer of power.”
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Despite All the Odds Donald Trump Elected 47th President
On Wednesday, Donald Trump was elected the 47th president of the United States, a remarkable turnaround for a former president who refused to concede defeat four years ago.
Trump achieved the 270 electoral votes required to secure the presidency with a victory in Wisconsin. On Wednesday afternoon, he emerged victorious in Michigan, conquering the “blue wall” with Pennsylvania.
On Wednesday afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris contacted President-Elect Trump to congratulate her and acknowledge his victory in the election. Shortly thereafter, Vice President Biden conversed with Trump to extend his congratulations and invitation to the White House.
Foreign leaders like French President Emmanuel Macron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also phoned Trump.
“I would like to express my gratitude to the American people for the extraordinary honor of being elected as your 47th and 45th president,” Trump addressed a crowd of enthusiastic supporters in Florida before officially confirming their victory.
“Today, you demonstrated unprecedented attendance to secure a victory, and we have endured an immense amount of hardship together,” Trump said. This was truly exceptional, and we will repay you,” he added.
Upon his return to office, Trump will collaborate with a Senate that is now under Republican control, while the House’s governance remains uncertain.
Elon Musk’s Tesla, banks, cryptocurrencies, and the U.S. stock market all surged Wednesday as investors anticipated a smooth election and Trump’s return to the White House.
Trump has pledged to implement an agenda that prioritizes the substantial revamping of the federal government during his second term.
When Trump assumes office on January 20, he will face various challenges, such as global crises testing America’s influence abroad and heightened political polarization.
Trump has pledged to revolutionize nearly every facet of the American government. This encompasses the intention to initiate the most extensive deportation operation in the nation’s history, once more pursue a zero-sum approach to foreign policy, and increase the use of tariffs.
Upon his arrival in Washington in 2017, Trump was unfamiliar with the mechanisms of federal authority. Congress, the judiciary, and senior staff members who acted as guardrails impeded his agenda.
This time, Trump has declared that he will surround himself with allies who will execute his agenda without question and arrive with hundreds of proposed executive orders, legislative proposals, and in-depth policy papers.
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