AfricaNews Monitoring Team
Early results in the South African elections have put the ruling African National Congress' (ANC) leader, Jacob Zuma, in the lead. With almost a quarter of votes counted, partial results showed the ruling ANC of Jacob Zuma had some 64% of the vote and the opposition Democratic Alliance around 21%.
Voting at some polling stations was allowed to go on late into the night because of an earlier shortage of ballot papers and boxes.
A leader of the opposition Cope party was shot dead in Eastern Cape but the vote appeared otherwise peaceful, according to the BBC.
The final result is not expected before Friday but there is little doubt the 67-year-old Zuma will become president only three weeks after managing to get prosecutors to drop an eight-year-old corruption case that had tainted his reputation.
