The DA and Athol Trollip are confident they can snatch Nelson Mandela Bay from the ANC.
By 7am on Thursday, the DA had an early lead in the highly-contested Nelson Mandela Bay metro, followed by the ANC and EFF.
Almost all the voting stations in Nelson Mandela Bay were finished counting, IEC regional supervisor Crosby Bacela told News24.
“Around 90% to 95% have been counted. But only 33% have been successfully captured here,” he said.
They still had to capture around 67% of the results, he said, which would take a bit of time.
Voting stations that were still counting were in Summerstrand, Kuyga, Motherwell, Kwanobuhle, and Booysens Park, he said.
Meanwhile, The DA claimed on Thursday morning that it has retained the Midvaal municipality in Gauteng.
According to the latest count, with 58% of voting stations counted, the DA is currently at 50.49%.
The ANC is at 39.57%, while the EFF is at 5.98%. The Freedom Front Plus follows behind with 3.48%.
DA MP Makashule Gana claimed on Twitter at around 4am that the party won the municipality.
Following the last local government elections in 2011, Midvaal was the only DA-led municipality in Gauteng.
“It gives me great pleasure to announce that @Our_DA has won Midvaal with over 60% of the vote. 11/15 Wards,” Gana said
DA wrests Kouga from ANC in the ECape
The DA has also won the Kouga Municipality from the ANC in the Eastern Cape in the 2016 local government elections.
According to the results, the DA has 57.04% of the vote, while the ANC has 40.1%.
News24 Elections analyst Dawie Scholtz said this was an interesting win because the demographics in the municipality are similar to hotly contested Nelson Mandela Bay metro.
“It’s possible we could see something similar in Nelson Mandela Bay.” – News24