South Africa’s election: When results are expected

South Africans were voting Wednesday in a national election that could be the country’s most hotly contested in 30 years, with the long-ruling African National Congress party facing a stern test to hold onto its majority.

The ANC has been the majority party in government ever since the end of South Africa’s apartheid system of white minority rule and the establishment of democracy in 1994 and has held the presidency since then.

Under the South African political system, people vote for parties and not directly for the president in their national elections. The two processes are separate, even though they are linked: Voters choose parties to decide the makeup of Parliament and…