South Africa’s president urges parties to find common ground in talks after election deadlock

By MOGOMOTSI MAGOME and GERALD IMRAY
Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has called for his country’s political parties to overcome their differences and find “common ground” to form the first national coalition government in its young democracy. South Africa on Sunday announced its final election results confirming that no party won a majority, and unprecedented coalition talks were starting to find a way forward for Africa’s most industrialized economy. The African National Congress party had already lost its 30-year majority after more than 99% of votes were counted by Saturday and showed it couldn’t surpass 50%. The ANC received 40% of the votes in last week’s election in the final count, the largest share.