Pretoria – Early on Wednesday morning, the ANC continued to slowly edge closer to the 47% mark, as it firmly clinched about 5.7 million votes.
By 1am, live results reflected on the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) board showed that the ruling party had, so far, gained 46.2% of voters’ support, with the DA holding 22.5%, followed by the EFF with 10.9% of voters’ support.
In terms of councils, the ANC held 72 of them thus far, and the DA holds 21 councils.
In Limpopo, the ANC had already surpassed the 60% mark, while the DA and the EFF were nowhere near the 20% mark.
The same applied in the Eastern Cape, where party was sitting with a 65.53% of voter support.
There are also about 35 municipalities hanging in the balance, with Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality being one of them.
But it remains to be a long haul for the IEC, as only 60% of votes cast had been counted, shortly before 2am.
This is a far cry from the assurance the IEC had given early last night, that the counting of votes would be completed at about midnight.
While addressing the media at the national results operation centre (ROC), chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo said the IEC was intent on ensuring that all votes were captured, saying: “We will spare no effort in ensuring that the majority of the 163 municipalities are completed within the planned time.”
At the ROC, some parties and party members were still watching the votes carefully after midnight.
The results that have trickled in so far have also been an indicator that parties may have to kick off serious coalition talks and exercise some persuasion tactics, in order to govern in some municipalities.
Political Bureau