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Daily podcast – May 9, 2014

9th May 2014

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May 9, 2014
From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, I’m Motshabi Hoaeane.
Making headlines:

South Africa’s ruling ANC holds on to election victory.

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Newly formed political party Economic Freedom Fighters reaches a million votes in its first national elections.

And, Egypt's former army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi lowers his expectations for change.

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The ANC has garnered over 10-million of the votes cast in the country’s fifth democratic elections, bringing its percentage of the votes to 62.50% early on Friday morning.

In the hotly contested province of Gauteng, the ANC is leading with 1.8-million votes, or 52.91%, with the DA following with over one-million votes, or 31.08%.

On Thursday the IEC said South Africa's fifth democratic election had seen the highest number of votes cast in the country's democratic history.

Over 18-million votes were expected to have been cast in this national election. This will exceed the 17.9-million votes cast in 2009 and the 15.5-million in 2004.
 

New kids on the block the Economic Freedom Fighters (or EFF) cracked the million vote mark on Friday morning in their first national elections.

Early results from the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s results centre in Pretoria showed that Julius Malema's party had one-million, two thousand three hundred and fifty-five (1 002 355) votes by 7.05am on Friday.

This meant the party had 6.06% of the national votes from Wednesday's elections.

The votes could secure at least 20 seats in Parliament for the fledgling party. For a seat in Parliament, a political party needs about 47 000 votes.

 

Egyptians should not expect instant democracy or rapid economic reforms, but should pull together for shared sacrifice. That is the sober message being delivered by Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the general who toppled Egypt's first freely-elected leader last year and is now poised to be elected president later this month.

He said on his campaign site on Facebook that it was wrong to expect Egypt to turn into a Western-style democracy overnight.

Sisi's interviews have revealed the gruff personality that his supporters say shows that he is a decisive man of action and his opponents say are signs of a new autocrat in waiting.

The former army chief stepped squarely into the public eye this week with a lengthy televised interview and other public remarks. His words seem carefully calibrated to appeal to Egyptians' hunger for stability and to draw a line under the era of rapid transformation since the 2011 revolt that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak.


Also making headlines:

The IEC website said counting of the Gauteng provincial results was 78.16% complete by 7.50am on Friday morning.

The leader of Mozambique's opposition party Renamo registered to vote on Thursday, raising hopes for a peaceful October presidential election.

Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie used a red carpet event to renew her plea for the safe return of more than 200 Nigerian school girls kidnapped by Islamist rebels.

And, the UN accuses both government and rebel forces in South Sudan of committing crimes against humanity.


That's a roundup of news making headlines today.

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