South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is under growing pressure after leading the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to its worst election result in 30 years, forcing it to share power.
With almost all the votes in from Wednesday’s poll, the ANC is on 40% – down from 58% at the previous election.
This is lower than the party’s feared worst-case scenario of 45%, analysts say.
The ANC has always polled above 50% since the country’s first democratic elections in 1994, which saw Nelson Mandela become president.
But support for the party has been dropping significantly because of anger over high levels of corruption, unemployment and crime.
Citing the cost-of-living crisis and frequent power cuts, one woman told the BBC she had voted for the ANC for the past 30 years, but had backed the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) this time.
“This result is not good. I wanted it out of government. We need to give someone else a chance,” she said.
At a briefing late on Saturday, electoral commission head Mosotho Moepya said it would be ready to announce the full results on Sunday.
The commission said all objections raised by a number of political parties would be reviewed, and recounts would be ordered if needed.