South Africa's governing African National Congress (ANC) looked almost certain to get less than 50% of an election vote for the first time since it ended white minority rule in 1994, with three quarters of results in from Monday's municipal ballot.
As of 1330 GMT on Wednesday the party was on 46%, down from 54% in corresponding elections in 2016, previously its worst result. The ANC's biggest rival, the Democratic Alliance, stood second on 22% and the Marxist Economic Freedom Fighters third with 10%.
Monday's elections had been widely viewed as a referendum on the ANC, tainted by corruption and facing a backlash over poor stewardship of an ailing economy, and on its uninterrupted 27 years in charge of Africa's most industrialised nation.
(Reporting by Promit Mukherjee, Nqobile Dludla and Alexander Winning; Editing by Emma Rumney and John Stonestreet)
