The ANC of South Africa quickly takes the lead in election results

The South African ANC took the lead on Thursday in the first official results with 55% of the vote in the first election test of President Cyril Ramaphosa's attempt to reinvigorate the ruling party.

With just over a fifth of the electoral districts counted, the Electoral Commission left the African National Congress (ANC) far ahead, its closest rival, the Democratic Alliance, trailing behind with 26% of distance .

The Economic Freedom Fighters, founded six years ago by former ANC youth leader, Julius Malema, sat at eight percent

President Ramaphosa, 66, succeeded last year after the African National Congress (ANC) forced the then president, Jacob Zuma, to resign after nine years of domination with allegations of corruption and economic problems.

The party that wins the most seats in parliament chooses the country's president, who will be sworn in on May 25.

"The result of this election will be a major boost for investors … and investor confidence, so is trust and the future," Ramaphosa said after Wednesday's vote.

The reputation of the ANC has been badly tainted under Mr Zuma.

"We apologize for our mistakes."

Support to the ANC has decreased in every election since 2004, with the party winning 54% of the vote in the 2016 municipal elections, compared with 62% in the 2014 national vote.

Nelson Mandela and the ANC were swept away by a landslide during the country's first multiracial polls marking the end of apartheid in 1994.

Most opinion polls suggest that the ANC will get close to 60% of the vote, thanks to Ramaphosa's call and a fractured opposition.

Dirk Coetzee, a professor in UNISA's Department of Political Science, said "the higher the percentage for the ANC, the more power it will give it bargaining power (Ramaphosa)".

"If Ramaphosa goes under 50%, he will be very vulnerable" to rivals' challenges within the ANC, he added.

The ANC has been confronted with growing public anger at its inability to fight poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa.

"We gave them 25 years, but the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer," said voter, Anmareth Preece, 28, a teacher in Coligny, North West Province. "We need a government that governs for the people, not for itself."

The economy has grown only 0.8% in 2018 and the unemployment rate is around 27% – exceeding 50% among young people.

Of the 47 opposition parties in the race, only the main opposition center, DA, and the EFF, from the far left, are major players.

The prosecutor hopes to lose his image as a white and bourgeois party.

Its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane, is contesting his first general election since coming to the helm in 2015 and is expected to make modest gains on the 2014 DA vote share of 22%.

The Malema EFF is expected to post significant gains, from 6.3% to 11% expected. Partial results show it at eight percent.

"The ANC has taken people for granted, there is a certain arrogance that has settled in," said a 45-year-old female constituent, Mandla Booi, in Port Elizabeth on the south coast.

The EFF, which is aimed primarily at young voters and the poor, has launched a campaign for a policy of confiscating land from white landowners for the benefit of blacks.

The redistribution of forced land is also the policy of the ANC – alarming some investors.

About 26.8 million voters were registered to vote in 22,925 polling stations across the country.