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Africa

The Latest: South African opposition leader votes in Soweto

Associated Press
Published | Updated
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    South Africans queue in the early morning cold to cast their votes in the mining settlement of Bekkersdal, west of Johannesburg, in South Africa Wednesday, May 8, 2019. South Africans are voting Wednesday in a national election that pits President Cyril Ramaphosa's ruling African National Congress against top opposition parties Democratic Alliance and Economic Freedom Fighters, 25 years after the end of apartheid. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

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    South Africans fill ballot paper at a polling station during elections at KwaMhlanga in Mpumalanga, South Africa, Wednesday, May 8, 2019. South Africans have started voting in presidential and parliamentary elections amid issues of corruption and unemployment. (AP Photo/Themba Hadebe)

JOHANNESBURG – The Latest on South Africa's elections (all times local):

7:55 a.m.

The leader of South Africa's main opposition party has cast his ballot in Dobsonville, a part of Soweto, Johannesburg's largest black township. He was one of the first voters at the Dobsonville polling station.

Democratic Alliance leader Mmusi Maimane has vigorously campaigned against the corruption scandals that have tarnished the ruling African National Congress party. But black support for Maimane's party is limited because it is widely perceived as being run by whites.

The African National Congress, the party of Nelson Mandela that has been in power since 1994, is likely to win a majority in Wednesday's poll but it will face a difficult challenge to do as well as five years ago.

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7 a.m.

South Africans have started voting in presidential and parliamentary elections amid issues of corruption and unemployment.

Wednesday's vote comes 25 years after the end of apartheid, but despite the demise of the system of racial discrimination the country remains divided by economic inequality .

The party of Nelson Mandela that has been in power since 1994, The African National Congress, is likely to win a majority but it will face a difficult challenge to do as well as five years ago.

The party has been tarnished by widespread corruption scandals and a national unemployment rate of 27% that has left many voters disillusioned. ANC head President Cyril Ramaphosa has campaigned on promises to clean up his party, an acknowledgment of the problems that forced his predecessor to resign last year.