ANC Suffers Heavy Losses in South African Elections
The African National Congress suffered heavy losses in South African elections, according to The New York Times, and ABC News described its results as the party's worst.
The African National Congress lost heavily in South Africa's local elections, The New York Times reported. The Times said the party, once a dominant force credited with overturning apartheid, had been turned into "any other political party," and its report carried the headline that South Africa's politics may never be the same again.
ABC News reported that the party is facing its "worst election results ever" and is humbled as it continues its decline. Its headline framed the result as part of a continuing decline in the party's standing.
The two accounts differ in scope. The Times summary refers to local elections, while the ABC News summary does not say which elections produced the results. The ABC News headline describes a continuing decline, a characterization the Times summary does not use.
Neither summary gives vote shares, seat totals, or the size of the party's losses, and neither names the parties that gained ground at the ANC's expense. Those details are therefore not reported here.
The Times account placed the party's standing in the context of its historical role, while the ABC News account focused on the scale of its results. Both reports, as summarized here, describe the party as weakened, although the summaries offer no measure of that weakness beyond the descriptions above.
Sources: The New York Times: South Africa’s Politics May Never Be the Same Again; ABC News: South Africa's ANC is humbled by its worst election results as it continues its decline.