South Africa's African National Congress (ANC) is preparing to enter talks with other parties to share power for the first time, after losing its three-decade majority in a watershed election.
With over 99.9 percent of the votes from this week's election counted by Sunday, the ANC had just 40.2 percent - a far cry from the 57.5 percent it won in 2019.
"The ANC is committed to the formation of a government that reflects the will of the people, that is stable and that is able to govern effectively," secretary-general Fikile Mbalula told a press conference on Sunday, in the party leadership's first comments since the outcome became clear.
He said the ANC would hold discussions internally and with other groups "over the next few days".
The party had held an absolute majority since 1994, when South Africa's first democratic elections brought white-minority rule to an end.
Mbalula acknowledged that it had "suffered heavily" in this election, while insisting that voters had not pushed it out of government altogether.
"The results send a clear message to the ANC," he said.
"We wish to assure the people of South Africa that we have heard them. We have heard their concerns, their frustrations and their dissatisfaction."
Ramaphosa to remain?
Final results are due to be formally announced on Sunday, with President Cyril Ramaphosa to deliver an address at an official ceremony near Johannesburg.
The constitution says the new parliament must convene within 14 days of the election results being declared to vote on a president.
The ANC remains South Africa's largest single party, but must now turn to its opponents to negotiate a coalition government - or at least persuade other lawmakers to back Ramaphosa's re-election to allow him to form a minority administration.
Mbalula said Ramaphosa would remain the ANC's leader and any demands from other parties that he resign for coalition talks to go ahead was "a no-go area".
"President Ramaphosa is the president of the ANC," Mbalula said. "And if you come to us with that demand that Ramaphosa is going to step down as the president, that is not going to happen."
The populist uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party, founded this year by former president Jacob Zuma, has said it will not negotiate with the ANC as long as Ramaphosa is its leader.
The ongoing count showed MK in third place with over 14.5 percent, though Zuma has alleged unspecified discrepancies in the results.
Coalition candidates
The centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) is the second-biggest party after the ANC with around 21.8 percent, about 1 percent more than it won in the last election in 2019.
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Its free-market agenda is at odds with the ANC's left-wing traditions, which would seem to make them uneasy partners. DA chairwoman Helen Zille said all options were on the table, including allowing the ANC to rule alone as a minority government.
Meanwhile the radical leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, led by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, were in fourth with 9.5 percent.
Both Malema and Zuma are former ANC members and some observers have suggested they would be more natural partners for a power-sharing deal.
But other analysts said their demands might be hard to meet and the rift between Ramaphosa and Zuma - who has long been bitter about the way he was forced out of office in 2018 amid a vast corruption scandal - too far reaching to mend.
Mbalula said the ANC was open to talks with every other political party in an effort to form a government, but "no political party will dictate terms to us".
"We'll talk to everybody," Mbalula said. "Talks about talks are in full swing. We are engaged and we are open to engagement. We need stability in this country."
(with newswires)
