(David Harrison/M&G)
Over 3.5-million votes had been counted as of 9.30am on Thursday morning.
Almost 27-million South Africans registered to vote to elect the country’s sixth democratic administration, with many heading to the polls on Wednesday in a day marred by bad weather, protests and worrying potential irregularities.
While it is too early to determine the final performance of each party, with about 8% of total possible votes have been counted, the ANC tops the leader-board at the Electoral Commission of South Africa Results Operation Centre in Pretoria, with 54.91%, the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 26.1% and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on 8.31%.
The EFF is followed by the Freedom Front Plus, with 3.2% of the vote and the IFP with 1.4%.
In 2014, the DA won 22.23% of the vote, with the EFF winning 6.35%. The voter turnout in 2014 was 73.48%.
Meanwhile the Electoral Commission of South Africa Results Operation Centre is still relatively calm, with political parties and members of the media gathering to watch the vote tally.
The IEC will provide an update on the counting process at 11am on Thursday.