THE need to verify results, when disparities emerge, by contacting district electoral officers has slowed down the rate of voting results. Voting results are submitted by phone, e-mail and fax. But electoral officers are proving hard to get hold of when double-checking is required. At 7pm on Thursday, only a fifth of the announced results had been verified, while the number of districts declared at 6pm had crept up only 6% from midday, to 66%. Though the final outcomes are becoming more and more certain, at the current rate of checking, it seems unlikely a final result will be available before Friday evening, if then. The IEC has seven days to produce a final result.
MOGOBA OFFERS TO QUIT AFTER POOR PAC SHOWING
PAN Africanist Congress president Stanley Mogoba offered to quit after his party’s dismal showing in the country’s second democratic election. His possible retirement will be discussed at a meeting in a few months time, where a major overhaul of the party’s leadership will also be discussed, Mogoba said in a statement on Thursday. The PAC had received about 0,71% of the vote by Friday morning. Asked whether Mogoba — who tops the party’s list to the National Assembly — will return to Parliament despite his comments about quitting, Masombuka said it would be up the PAC’s redeployment committee to decide who was sent to Parliament. Mogoba, a former Methodist Bishop of Southern Africa, was asked to lead the party after a leadership crisis saw ex-president Clarence Makwetu effectively ousted by party hawks.