ANC win puts Zuma in line for South Africa presidency

The victory puts party leader Jacob Zuma in line for the presidency, but without the seats in the 400-member parliament to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged.

A split in the ANC and questions about Zuma's fitness to govern after sex and corruption scandals were contributing factors. Zuma told reporters he was not disappointed to fall just short of two-thirds. "We have won a decisive majority," he said.

Parliament elects the president in South Africa and was expected to vote Zuma into office May 6.

Zuma was treated like a president-elect yesterday, surrounded by photographers and well-wishers as he arrived to hear the final results, then appearing live on state television to deliver a 20-minute speech in which he promised his administration would speed up delivery of jobs, houses, school, and clinics to the black majority, which was denied so much under apartheid and has seen slow change since the ANC first took over in 1994.

He also offered his hand to rival parties. "We may disagree on how to build a better life for all, but what unites us is the fact that this country belongs to all of us, black, white, colored, Indian, together."

The African National Congress took 65.9 percent of the nearly 18 million votes cast Wednesday. It was allotted 264 seats, three short of two-thirds, and 33 fewer than it held previously.

The main Democratic Alliance got 67, up from 47. The ANC breakaway party, known as COPE, got 30; it did not exist the last time South Africans voted. The Inkatha Freedom Party got 18, down from 23. Nine other parties shared the remaining seats.

The seats were allotted by officials according to a formula after the vote was certified.

The ANC won 69.69 percent of the vote in the last elections in 2004, when it was led by Zuma's rival Thabo Mbeki. It won 66.35 percent in 1999. In the country's first all-race vote in 1994, the ANC won 62.64 percent of the vote.

The party's rivals will make much of the slide, however slight.

It could be seen as a message that voters want some limits on the party. ANC rivals had argued Zuma should not have the two-thirds' majority needed to legislate unchallenged or to change the constitution.

It could be linked to the split in the movement that defeated apartheid. A new, black-led party formed by disgruntled former ANC leaders close to Mbeki placed third in the race, with just over 7 percent of the final tally.

In total, more than 77 percent of the country's record 23 million registered voters cast ballots. Turnout in 2004 was about 76 percent of more than 20 million registered voters.

A strong ethnic vote from Zulus in Zuma's rural homeland helped boost the ANC, which sees the populist Zuma as the first leader who can energize voters since Nelson Mandela. Supporters confident of an ANC victory have been celebrating since voting ended Wednesday.

Zuma faces a heavy responsibility - meeting expectations for change among South Africa's impoverished black majority.

Some say Zuma is too beholden to unions and leftists, and will not be able to fulfill his promises of creating jobs and a stronger social safety net. At the end of the campaign, Zuma was talking not about creating jobs, but staving off job losses.

The country's racial divide still runs deep, as seen from the results in the Western Cape province. Mixed-race voters, feeling marginalized now after being treated better than blacks under apartheid's racist rules, voted largely for the opposition Democratic Alliance.