Cape Town - By midday on Thursday, the IEC in the Western Cape captured well over half of the votes cast in the province, electoral officer Courtney Sampson said.
“We have already counted 1.6 million people and that is a count out of 2.94 million (registered) people...” Sampson told reporters at the provincial results and operations centre in Bellville-South.
According to the results captured by IEC staff, by noon the Democratic Alliance had obtained just under 60 percent of the vote both nationally and provincially.
The African National Congess had about 33 percent of the vote so far, followed by the Economic Freedom Fighters with just over two percent of the vote.
The African Christian Democratic party and Freedom Front Plus stood at just over one percent each.
The Congress of the People dropped to under one percent.
While many of the results from rural areas came in, it would take a bit longer for the province's biggest voting bloc - the City of Cape Town - to be captured.
Just under two million people are registered to vote in the metropole.
Sampson said improved systems at the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) meant that the counting and capturing of results was completed earlier than in previous years.
“It's the first time we've been at this level of progress of capturing results,” he said. - Sapa