PRETORIA, South Africa (AP) — South Africa’s ruling African National Congress was headed for a comfortable win as vote-counting in South Africa’s elections drew to a close Friday while key opposition rivals strengthened their support after promising change after 20 years of leadership by the party that led the fight against apartheid.

With nearly 99 percent of South Africa’s voting districts counted, the African National Congress had 62.2 percent of the vote, a few percentage points lower than its result in 2009 elections, according to the national election commission.