South Africa held its first fully democratic national election on 27 April 1994, and Nelson Mandela’s ANC won the largest share of the vote.
The election ended the apartheid-era system of racially restricted political participation. Millions of South Africans who had previously been excluded from national elections were able to vote, and long queues formed at polling stations across the country.
The African National Congress received about 62 percent of the national vote. The result made Mandela the country’s first Black president after the Government of National Unity was formed.
27 April is now celebrated as Freedom Day in South Africa. It should not be confused with 10 May 1994, the date of Mandela’s presidential inauguration.