Two-party contest as votes trickle in

With just 131 071 votes counted by midnight on Wednesday, the ruling party had 55,76% of the vote for wards and the Democratic Alliance came in at 33,48%.

The ANC had 71 847 votes cast so far and the DA had 43 146, across various wards in the country.

But it’s not cause for celebration for the official opposition just yet. Just over a hundred wards had been counted so far, and 15 of these were in the Western Cape, increasingly a DA stronghold.
In addition wards counted so far were a tiny fraction of the total. Counting will continue through the night with firmer results available on Thursday and beyond.

The IEC are bound to announce results within seven days of voting, but generally deliver sooner than that.

So far the ANC has seen the biggest loss in the Northern Cape with the DA capitalising on this, but results are still very premature.

Meanwhile 2 212 people spoilt their ballots on those counted thus far, at 11pm. But results changed rapidly on the screens that stretched to the ceiling at the IEC’s results centre in Pretoria.

The voter turnout seemed poor, but the IEC’s Pansy Tlakula said she was hopeful that they would meet their target of a 40% voter turnout of the 23,6-million who were registered to vote.

Voting numbers in local elections are traditionally low, with 46,4% of registered voters making their mark in the 2006 local elections. The national election however saw 77,3% of the electorate find their way to a ballot box.
The DA seemed to be maintaining their dominance in the Western Cape with 17 871 or 63,81% of the 28 007 ward votes counted so far. The ANC had 6 847 or 24,45%. Of 422 votes counted in the City Of Cape Town so far, 391 were for the DA.
In Gauteng far fewer votes had been counted: just 4 829. The ANC had the majority of these with 2 595 votes cast for wards in the province. The DA had 1 747 votes.
Some wards were fully counted by midnight, including ward 79700072 in Ekurhuleni. It went to the ANC with 87 of 114 votes cast. The DA got 20 votes in what is largely becoming a two-party contest. The ward also had a high turn out with 114 voters out of 147 registered. But in ward 79700017 in the same area the DA won the ward with 156 votes out of 182.
No results were available for the Midvaal yet.