S. African lawmakers elect Zuma president

Zuma won with 277 votes in the 400-member National Assembly, including 13 opposition lawmakers.

Ruling party members jeered when members of the Congress of the People, an opposition party that broke last year from the African National Congress, or ANC, were sworn in earlier.

They also booed when COPE nominated its own candidate, Mvume Dandala, for president. Dandala received 47 votes.

Zuma, 67, dressed in a plain gray suit and navy patterned tie, licked his lips nervously then broke into a grin as the result was announced. He bowed and clapped as ANC lawmakers clamored to shake his hand, chanted his name and broke into song.

Under South Africa's constitution, which dictates that the president must be elected from among members of the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, Zuma was sworn in as a lawmaker for a few hours while the vote was taken, then resigned from the body.

He did not announce his Cabinet but said the executive would be working by the beginning of next week. Zuma is to be inaugurated Saturday.

"Our people have high expectations. As the executive, we will do our best to be more hands-on, more accessible and to deliver on our commitments," he said in a reference to the formal and remote former president, Thabo Mbeki, who sacked Zuma as the nation's deputy president in 2005 over corruption allegations.

The corruption charges, dropped recently because of outside interference in the timing of charges, have never been tested in court.