The Democratic Alliance was leading the race in the closely contested Cape Town metro council with just over 95% of the vote captured and audited by 10.30pm on Thursday.
A final result would not be available before Friday morning, provincial electoral officer Courtney Sampson told reporters.
With less than five percent of the vote outstanding, the DA was leading with 42.45% over the African National Congress’s 37.3%.
The Independent Democrats had garnered 10.89 percent of the vote in the metro and the African Christian Democratic Party 3.23 percent.
Independent candidates came in fifth with a combined 1.57 percent, followed by the African Muslim Party with 1.28 percent, the United Democratic Movement with 0.79 percent, the Freedom Front Plus 0.5 percent, the Pan Africanist Congress with 0.49 percent and the Inkatha Freedom Party with 0.15 percent.
The delay could partly be blamed on tiredness on the part of officials, some of whom had been working for more than 40 hours straight, Sampson said.
The verification process at the Independent Electoral Commission offices in Pretoria was also taking longer than expected.
”We cannot demand the prioritisation of Cape Town simply because it is the most hotly contested metro in the country,” Sampson said.
He said he had decided not to put unnecessary pressure on staff and to give them an opportunity to relax.
By 10.30pm, the results in 31 voting districts had not yet been captured and in 40 not yet audited.
An official announcement of the final result would be made at 10am on Friday.
Talks on coalition-forming have started even before the announcement of the final vote count in the Cape Town metro council.
DA mayoral candidate Helen Zille said her party had approached the ID and ACDP ”to say let’s talk, we’re available”.
”In this election, voters had a choice between the African National Congress or one of the opposition parties,” she told Sapa at the election results centre in Cape Town.
”A significant majority of voters chose one of the opposition parties (DA). This reflects a mandate on voters to form a coalition of opposition parties. We want to do just that.”
But ID mayoral candidate Simon Grindrod remained steadfast against any coalition.
The ID, he said, would instead campaign for the abolition of the current executive mayor system in favour of an executive committee system.
This was fairer as it gave parties a portfolio and seats proportional to their representation, he said.
The ID hoped to get the DA’s support on this issue.
Grindrod confirmed he had been approached by Zille on Thursday evening, but said he declined any coalition discussion.
Zille said this amounted to putting the ANC back into power against the wishes of voters.
”It is a death sentence for any opposition party to put the ANC back in government,” she said. ”We must learn from the past.”
Asked what the future held for the DA without the ID’s co-operation, she said: ”We’ll see.” – Sapa