New Party in South Africa to Boycott Opening of Parliament – The New York Times

South Africa’s Election
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UMkhonto weSizwe, which is led by Jacob Zuma, the populist former president, has asserted that the recent election was rigged and the results illegitimate.
By John Eligon
Reporting from KwaMakhutha, South Africa
The official results from national elections last month just don’t add up for Mbalenhle Mthethwa, a loyal adherent of a new political party led by Jacob Zuma, former president of South Africa.
“The elections were not free and fair,” she said, echoing the stolen-election narrative Mr. Zuma has advanced.
Mr. Zuma, 82, whose nine years as president were marred by allegations of corruption and looting of state coffers, has taken a page from the playbook of recent populist leaders, notably in the United States and Brazil.
In those nations, claims of rigged elections resulted in chaos. South Africans will get a first look at how the situation might unfold in their country on Friday, when Parliament meets to vote for a new president.
Mr. Zuma’s party, uMkhonto weSizwe, known as M.K., has vowed to boycott the session, and it remains unclear what will happen among the other parties. The long-governing African National Congress party announced late Thursday that it had yet to finalize a coalition with the 17 other parties that won seats in Parliament. The A.N.C. won just 40 percent of the vote in the last election, losing its absolute majority for the first time, which has forced it to work with bitter rivals in order to form a government.
Fikile Mbalula, the secretary general of the A.N.C., would not say on Thursday whether his party had secured an agreement to re-elect the A.N.C.’s leader, Cyril Ramaphosa, as president.
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