Jacob Zuma's African National Congress party is leading the vote with 66.91 percent

With his all-but-official victory, Zuma takes on a heavy responsibility — meeting expectations for change among the impoverished black majority.

clipped from news.yahoo.com Preliminary results from the nearly 14.5 million ballots counted so far from Wednesday's election showed that Jacob Zuma's African National Congress party was leading the vote with 66.91 percent. Parliament elects South Africa's president by a simple majority, putting Zuma in line for the post when the new assembly votes in May. The ANC swept South Africa's first post-apartheid election in 1994 and the two following that. In 2004, it took 69.69 percent of the parliamentary vote. If the ANC fails to at least match that this year, it will be seen as a message from voters that they want some limits on the party. A two-thirds majority allows the ANC to enact major budgetary plans or legislation unchallenged, or to change the constitution. With relish, Zuma told several thousand supporters that skeptics who had said the ANC wouldn't get 60 percent of the parliamentary vote now "are saying 70."