More than 20 million people of all races voted in the South African election of 1994. It was the first fully democratic election in the country’s history. The election marked the end of South Africa’s apartheid system, which had kept people of color separate from whites. Voting took place during April 26–29, 1994. April 27 is now celebrated in South Africa as Freedom Day, a national holiday.
At stake in the election were 400 seats in the National Assembly and 90 seats in the Senate. Voters also elected provincial parliaments. People stood in long lines waiting for their turn to vote. Most of them had never before voted in a national election.
Voters cast their ballots for a political party, not for individual candidates. A total of 19 political parties took part in the election. Each party had made a list of candidates before the election. The number of votes won by a party determined the number of representatives that the party would have in the National Assembly. Membership in the provincial legislatures was decided in the same way. This system of voting is called proportional representation.
The African National Congress (ANC) won the election with 62.7 percent of the votes. The National Party (NP) had 20.4 percent of the votes. The ANC also won the most votes in seven of the nine provinces. The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) won the majority of the votes in KwaZulu-Natal. The NP won in the Western Cape province.
In a parliamentary system, the leader of the winning party becomes the head of government. The leader of the ANC was Nelson Mandela, who was inaugurated as the first black president of South Africa on May 10, 1994. The ANC, the NP, and the IFP formed a government of national unity. Thabo Mbeki of the ANC and F.W. de Klerk, leader of the NP, were inaugurated as deputy presidents. Thousands of people attended the inauguration ceremony at the Union Buildings in Pretoria, South Africa.