The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) hopes to have posted 90% of the local government election results by sunset, its chairperson Brigalia Bam said on Thursday.
A 47% voter turnout had been recorded by 10.45am, Bam said in a briefing at the IEC’s national operations centre in Pretoria.
”By this morning, 68 of the 283 municipalities and 20 district management areas had been completed, giving us 23% of the total to be completed,” she said.
Counting in the Ethekwini and Cape Town municipalities was progressing well and results would be announced soon.
”So far, results in 64% of wards, 63% of proportional ballots, and 71% district councils have been counted, captured and audited.”
Voting in parts of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal went on late into the night on Wednesday because of long queues, said Bam.
In the Greater Taung Municipality in the North West province, voting had to be extended to 9pm because of flooding, she said.
Bam said she was proud that there had been no violence during the voting process and that almost no-one had been harassed or threatened.
She described as an exception the wounding of a Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo) ward candidate in a shooting at 10pm on Wednesday, adding it was wonderful no-one had died in violence in areas of concern.
These included Khutsong, where residents had vowed not to vote after often violent protests against the incorporation of its municipality into the North West province from Gauteng.
”We celebrate that, considering the agitation from the population,” Bam said.
She expressed gratitude that youths in Khutsong had played football instead of voting, saying they could have been doing something worse.
Leading the vote, the African National Congress (ANC) was encouraged by voter turnout, said spokesperson Steyn Speed.
Overall results at midday showed 11 393 386 votes for the ANC and 2 589 159 for the Democratic Alliance.
Although the DA seemed to be neck-and-neck with the ANC in the Western Cape, Speed said the first votes counted were usually in white areas surrounding the metropole.
DA chief whip Douglas Gibson said he was ”happy, happy” and heartened at the party’s improvement on the 2000 local government elections.
”It looks as though the ANC’s inexorable growth has been halted which is very good for democracy in South Africa,” he said.
Parties should learn from this election that they had to work hard for every vote.
The DA appeared to have garnered support in Tshwane through its campaign to retain the name of Pretoria.
It brought in 58,90% of the vote there over ANC’s 25,06% and the Freedom Front Plus’s 8,84%.
The Independent Democrats’ (ID) Gauteng director Mervyn Serota was ”very impressed” with the party’s returns in the Western Cape where it was emerging as the party which would control the balance of power with 11,45% of the vote so far. Serota said the ID would not enter into coalitions.
Freedom Front Plus (FF+) leader Pieter Mulder said his party seemed to have got a foot in the door all over the country.
The African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), which had a provisional 1,18% of the vote, was not disappointed with its performance.
”Our numbers have increased in all areas results have come in for. In a couple of the results such as George, Mossel Bay and Stellenbosch we are part of the balance of power,” said ACDP deputy president Jo-Ann Downs. – Sapa