Kimberley - Support for the ANC in the Northern Cape has increased by 3.65 percent with the party clinching a victory of 64.4 percent compared to 60.75 percent in the 2009 general elections.
The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) wrapped up counting in the Province just after 4pm on Thursday afternoon.
Out of a total of 601 080 registered voters, 428 537 voters (71.20 percent) cast their ballots in the Province.
The DA received the second biggest share of the votes, almost doubling its support from base from 12.57 percent during the last elections to 23.89 percent.
The new kid on the block - the EFF muscled in 4.96 percent of the votes.
Cope experienced a massive drop in support where it attained 3.60 percent as opposed to 16.67 percent in 2009 when they were the official opposition.
The party stands to gain one seat in the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature with the ANC expected to be allocated 20 seats, the DA seven seats and the EFF two seats.
Support for the Freedom Front Plus (1.09 percent) and the ACDP (0.57 percent) declined slightly with the other parties receiving less than one percent of the election pie.
The party with the lowest number of votes was the National Freedom Party at 122 votes (0.03 percent).
The Joe Morolong and John Taolo Gaetsewe districts were amongst the last voting stations to complete the counting process on Thursday.
Provincial IEC manager, Elkin Topkin, said the 5 581 spoilt ballots (1.4 percent) that were cast, was not a big concern because it was slightly less that the 6 190 (1.5 percent) in 2009.
“We thought that the ‘Vote No’ campaign would have had a greater impact on voters spoiling their votes.”
Topkin added that the IEC would officially announce the results tomorrow or on Sunday.
He said that apart from the few objections received by the commission, the voting had run like a well-oiled machine with no major incidents or disruptions.
“There were no last-minute rushes and all voting stations closed on time at 9pm. We wanted to speed up the queues so that voting will take up to a maximum of 10 minutes by incorporating a number of different voting booths at one venue.”
He also said that the few logistical glitches and staff challenges were experienced that would be addressed.
“There were delays of up to 90 minutes before counting could start, where the generators at some voting stations in Kimberley inside the tents had spilled fuel. The voting stations at Vooruitsig School and Kimberley Junior School came close to running out of ballot papers. Luckily we had a buffer of 5 000 additional ballots. Voters who did not vote at the venue where they registered also impacted on the number of available ballot papers. We also had some political parties who were trying too hard to persuade voters to choose their organisation.”
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