Win for ruling party in S. Africa affirmed

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - South Africa's election commission completed a vote count that confirms the ruling African National Congress as the winner but also shows the strengthening of prominent opposition groups, according to results Saturday.

The government said the election and its aftermath went smoothly, despite scattered delays and disruptions and an outbreak of violence in a poor area of Johannesburg.

With all 22,000 voting districts counted, the African National Congress had 62.15 percent of the vote, several percentage points lower than its result in 2009 elections, the election commission said on its website. The main opposition party, the Democratic Alliance, won 22.23 percent of the vote, an increase of more than 5 percent from 2009. The Economic Freedom Fighters, a new party that wants to distribute national resources to the poor, won 6.35 percent.

Under South Africa's system of proportional representation, the ruling party enters the new parliament with 249 of the 400 seats, the Democratic Alliance has 89 seats, and the Economic Freedom Fighters are third with 25 seats. Smaller parties share the rest of the seats.

Voter turnout was 73 percent of the 25 million South Africans, or half the population, who registered for the national and provincial elections.

In a key race, the ruling party won Gauteng, South Africa's most populous province and its economic center, by about 53 percent, but that was a drop of 10 percent from its performance in the 2009 vote.