Preliminary data on the turnout for the local government elections indicated that 23% of registered voters had cast their ballots by 7pm on Wednesday.
But the Independent Electoral Commission has warned that this data is not a true reflection of voter turnout, but rather an early indicator of activity at polling stations.
“These figures are not a true reflection of voter turnout” said Courtney Sampson, IEC chief electoral officer of the Western Cape. He said that the IEC has asked its officials to concentrate on ensuring smooth processes, rather than collating statistics.
But the early figures showed the province with the highest turnout recorded thus far remained the Northern Cape, with about 53% of registered voters having made their mark.
This was followed by 39% in KwaZulu-Natal and 38% in the North West Province.
Gauteng showed a preliminary recorded turnout of just over 7%.
South Africa has 23,6-million voters registered for this election.
In the Western Cape, by 7pm preliminary voter turnout data for the City of Cape Town had improved to 15%, while the municipality with the largest turnout figures thus far in the province was Prince Albert at 68,9% .
By 8.30pm, 1 193 stations in the Western Cape had closed and begun counting while another 377 remained open.
Nkosikhulule Nyembezi, advocacy programme manager for Black Sash, a member of the Election Monitoring Network, said that these indicative numbers were quite encouraging as some municipalities had already seen half or close to half of the registered voters cast their ballot by 7pm.
He said that, despite some isolated incidents of violence, there were many clear signals of a maturing on evidence during the voting process.
“Foremost among these was the conduct of our citizens. They were called upon to act in a responsible manner, and as before their conduct has been impeccable,” he said.
“Today’s election seems to have been the most peaceful in South Africa’s democratic history, and we trust that this bodes well for our future.”