Pretoria - Almost nine hours after the voting stations closed in the fifth democratic election in South Africa, over 20 percent of the votes had been counted on Thursday morning.
At 5.45am, 23.33 percent of votes had been counted and the African National Congress had 1 592 714 votes, the Democratic Alliance 850 186, the Economic Freedom Fighters 110 790 and the United Democratic Movement had 27 337 votes.
The Freedom Front Plus had 35 251, the Congress of the People 22 355, the Inkatha Freedom Party 55 510, Agang SA 6 376 and the National Freedom Party had 38 150 votes.
The Workers Socialist Party had 1 343 votes, the African Christian Democratic Party 19,175, the African Independent Congress 15 637 and the African Peoples Convention had 4898 votes.
Al Jama-Ah had 6 066 votes, Azanian Peoples Organisation 2 810, Bushbuckridge Residents Association 1556, First Nation Liberation Alliance 652, and Front National 920.
The Independent Civic Organisation of SA had 5 638 votes, Keep It Straight and Simple 594, Kingdom Governance Movement 1 060, Minority Front 1 498 and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania 4745 votes.
The Pan Africanist Movement had 619 votes, Patriotic Alliance 4 633, Peoples Alliance 327, the Ubuntu Party 1 397, United Christian Democratic Party 2 334 and United Congress 512.
Political party representatives started arriving again at the IEC results centre in Pretoria at 6am. - Sapa