South Africa's long-ruling African National Congress party, which gained power under President Nelson Mandela, has received less than 50% of the vote in early election results.

If the ANC loses, it would be the first loss of its majority since the end of apartheid in 1994.

Roughly 27% of the votes from Wednesday's election have been counted as of Thursday. The independent electoral commission says the final vote will be delivered by Sunday.

ANC has 43% of the partial vote based on results from about 6,000 of the 23,000 polling stations across South Africa's nine provinces.

If the ANC does not secure a majority, it would need support from other parties to reelect President Cyril Ramaphosa for a second term.

Ramaphosa is a former anti-apartheid activist and has served as South Africa's fifth president since 2018.

Losing the majority would also require the ANC to co-govern and find a coalition partner.

Up to the start of the election, the ANC said it was confident it would keep a majority. It has not signaled how it would establish a coalition government.

Nomvula Mokonyane, ANC deputy secretary-general, said she saw the partial results as better than some earlier projections.

"We remain optimistic," Mokonyane told the South African Broadcasting Corporation. "Everybody was looking at the ANC [to receive] around 36% to 40%, and we are quite certain that we will surpass that."

Early election results show South Africa's largest opposition parties trailing the ANC. Democratic Alliance has received about 25% of the vote and the Economic Freedom Fighters party, 8%.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.