ANC leads national vote with over 60%

PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA SHAKING HANDS AND SHARING BANTER WITH OPPOSTION LEADER HELEN ZILLE AND OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES, WHILE POINTEDLY SNUBBING NEWBIES THE EFF, There was a flurry of activity at the main IEC electoral hub in Pretoria where votes were tallied throughout the day and night watched on eagerly by a mix of mostly politicians and journalists. Picture: Antoine de Ras, 08/05/2014 - 083 4601967

PRESIDENT JACOB ZUMA SHAKING HANDS AND SHARING BANTER WITH OPPOSTION LEADER HELEN ZILLE AND OTHER POLITICAL PARTIES, WHILE POINTEDLY SNUBBING NEWBIES THE EFF, There was a flurry of activity at the main IEC electoral hub in Pretoria where votes were tallied throughout the day and night watched on eagerly by a mix of mostly politicians and journalists. Picture: Antoine de Ras, 08/05/2014 - 083 4601967

Published May 9, 2014

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Pretoria - The ANC was leading the fifth national elections with 62.45 percent of the vote on Friday morning, according to provisional results.

The party had garnered 10 481 963 votes so far, which was 62.45 percent of the counted vote just after 9am.

In 2009, the African National Congress had won the national elections with 65.90 percent of the vote.

On Friday morning, 95.37 percent of the national count had been completed. According to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) 21 232 out of 22 263 voting districts had been counted. So far there were 16 785 905 valid votes counted and 233 570 spoilt votes.

The Democratic Alliance was still holding the second spot with 22.01 percent of the vote.

There was a little more than a 6.7 million gap between the DA's 3 694 312 counted votes and the ANC's.

In 2009, the DA retained its position as the official opposition with 16.66 percent of the vote.

Head of the DA's 2014 campaign Jonathan Moakes earlier said his party had grown by a third since 2009.

Julius Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters looked set to go to Parliament this year.

A political party needs around 47 000 votes to get a seat in the National Assembly, and the EFF currently held third spot nationally with 1 029 254 votes counted, which was 6.13 percent.

Mamphela Ramphele's Agang SA had only received 44 714 votes so far, which was 0.27 percent.

During her campaign and on election day, Ramphele was very vocal about her party's chances in this year's election. However, by Thursday morning when the results stared coming in she declined to speak to media.

Sapa reporters tried to speak to her three times while at the results centre but interview requests were turn down. Ramphele has not returned to the IEC's results centre in Pretoria since Thursday morning.

On Friday, the Inkatha Freedom Party had 407 095 (2.43 percent) of the national vote, while its break-away the National Freedom Party garnered 271 140 votes (1.62 percent). This was the first time the NFP was contesting elections nationally. It had contested the local government elections in 2011.

The United Democratic Movement had captured 173 980 votes (1.04 percent), the Freedom Front Plus 155 830 (0.93 percent), and the Congress of the People 114 529 (0.93 percent).

Veteran political parties such as the African Christian Democratic Party had so far garnered 93 795 votes (0.56 percent), while the Pan Africanist Congress had 33 966 votes (0.2 percent).

Sapa

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