South Africa’s ruling party suffers biggest election setback

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — With 99 percent of the votes counted, South Africa’s ruling party is leading in the country’s largest city, Johannesburg, in municipal elections in which the party has seen its worst-ever showing at the polls.

The African National Congress was leading the opposition Democratic Alliance, 43 percent to 39 percent.

The ANC lost the Tshwane metropolitan area that includes the capital, Pretoria, to the Democratic Alliance, which has made a strong expansion from its stronghold in the city of Cape Town. It also won in another of the country’s top six municipalities, Nelson Mandela Bay.

The losses have threatened a generation of dominance for the ANC, the former anti-apartheid movement that took power at the end of white-minority rule 22 years ago.