South Africans Queue for Landmark Election, ANC Faces Potential Loss of Majority

South African voters queued — many of them for hours — to cast their ballots yesterday in a landmark general election that has left the ruling ANC fighting to protect its three-decade-long exclusive grip on power. More than 27 million voters are registered for the most uncertain poll since the African National Congress (ANC) led the nation out of apartheid rule, but with voting delayed in many districts, some were forced to wait. With opposition challenges from both the left and right, unemployment and crime at near record levels and a new generation growing up with no memory of the struggle against white-minority rule, the ruling party may lose its absolute majority and be forced to share power.