ANC LEADS NATIONAL VOTE WITH 62.45 PERCENT – Sapa
The ANC was leading the fifth national elections with 62.45% of the vote on Friday morning, according to provisional results.
The party had garnered 10,481,963 votes so far, which was 62.45% of the counted vote just after 9am.
In 2009 the African National Congress had won the national elections with 65.90% of the vote.
On Friday morning, 95.37% 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% 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% 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%.
Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang SA had only received 44,714 votes so far, which was 0.27%.
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%) of the national vote, while its break-away the National Freedom Party garnered 271,140 votes (1.62%). 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%), the Freedom Front Plus 155,830 (0.93%), and the Congress of the People 114,529 (0.93%).
Veteran political parties such as the African Christian Democratic Party had so far garnered 93,795 votes (0.56%), while the Pan Africanist Congress had 33,966 votes (0.20%).
OVER 234,000 SPOILT VOTES – Sapa
More than 234,000 ballots were spoilt in the 2014 general elections, according to preliminary figures by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) on Friday.
The highest number of spoilt votes came from KwaZulu-Natal with 47,533, followed by Gauteng with 34,202, and the Eastern Cape at 31,744.
Spoilt votes in Mpumalanga stood at 19,333, North West 18,411, and Limpopo close behind with 18,345.
The results showed that so far there were 17,860 spoilt votes in the Western Cape, and 12,884 in the Free State.
The province with the least number of spoilt votes was the Northern Cape with 6106.
The figures were rising as vote counting continued on Friday.
In the 2009 general election, spoilt votes totalled 239,237 according to country’s election resources website.
In the run-up to this year’s elections, former intelligence minister Ronnie Kasrils and former deputy health minister Nozizwe Madlala-Routledge led a campaign supporting spoilt votes.
They launched the “Sidikiwe! Vukani! Vote No” campaign in April and called on South Africans to either vote for a minority party, or spoil their ballots.
The campaign was aimed at convincing struggle activists and others not to vote for the African National Congress.
They said this tactical move would help deepen democracy through diminishing the ANC’s majority.
The two had previously said they were against corruption and the lavish lifestyles of ANC members.
Before the election, Kasrils said ordinary people were suffering because taxpayers’ money was being spent on upgrades to President Jacob Zuma’s private home in KwaZulu-Natal and travel arrangements for the wealthy Gupta family, who reportedly had close ties with Zuma.
However, the City Press on Thursday reported that Kasrils did not spoil his vote.
“I voted for two parties, nationally and provincially, but not the ANC or the DA,” he was quoted as saying.
“…I want to see some smaller parties entering the provincial or the national [government] and speaking up against corruption, for better government, for service to the people and for accountability.”
Kasrils believed that supporting two smaller parties would provide the change he wanted to see in the country.
EFF REACHES A MILLION VOTES – Sapa
New kids on the block the Economic Freedom Fighters cracked the million vote mark on Friday morning in their first national elections.
Early results from the Electoral Commission of SA results centre in Pretoria showed that Julius Malema’s party had 1,002,355 votes by 7.05am on Friday.
This meant the party had 6.06% of the national votes from Wednesday’s elections.
The votes could secure at least 20 seats in Parliament for the fledgling party. For a seat in Parliament, a political party needs about 47,000 votes.
With 94.61% of the votes counted, the African National Congress had 62.51% of the national votes with 10,333,002 votes while the Democratic Alliance remained in second place with 21.96% of the national votes. The DA had 3,629,890 votes.
The EFF was in third place.
Veteran party Inkatha Freedom Party had 405,802 (2.45%) votes, followed by their breakaway party the National Freedom Party with 269,712 (1.63%) votes.
Other debutant parties, such as Agang SA, the Workers and Socialist Party and the Patriotic Alliance have not done as well as Malema’s EFF.
Mamphela Ramphele’s Agang SA had only received 0.26% with 43,651 votes, which at this stage did not qualify the party for a seat in Parliament.
Kenny Kunene’s Patriotic Alliance received 12,710 votes (0.08%) and Wasp 7497 (0.05%) of the votes.
A total of 16,529,857 votes have been counted.
DA SUPPORT MAY INCREASE – Sapa
Support for the Democratic Alliance could increase by over five percent in the fifth national democratic elections with more than 90% of votes counted on Friday morning.
According to early results, the DA have 22.03% of the votes with 3,605,019 votes nationally in Wednesday’s elections after 94.09% of votes had been counted.
In the 2009 elections, the DA received 16.66% of votes, while it received 12.37% of the votes in the 2004 elections.
According to the results at the Electoral Commission of SA’s results centre in Pretoria on Friday morning, the African National Congress had 62.51% of the votes by 6am with 10,228,644 votes.
In the 2009 elections the ruling party won with 65.9% of the votes.
In 2004, the ANC won with 69.69% compared to the 66.35% in 1999 and the 62.65% in 1994.
On Friday, the early results indicated that the new kids on the block, the Economic Freedom Fighters were in third place with 5.95% of the votes and 973,369 votes.
The Inkatha Freedom Party had 404,692 (2.47%) votes according to Friday morning’s early results.
The National Freedom Party remained in fifth place with 1.64% of the national votes.
The results centre was quiet on Friday morning with tired party officials and media waiting for the results to be updated. Shortly after 5.30am police took sniffer dogs through the centre.
A total of 16,362,869 votes had been counted.
DA HOLD KZN OPPOSITION LEAD – Sapa
The Democratic Alliance held a slim lead over the Inkatha Freedom Party on the provincial ballot in KwaZulu-Natal in the race to become the official opposition in the province, according to election results from the Electoral Commission of SA.
While the African National Congress, by 5.13am on Friday, appeared to have secured a resounding victory in the province with 64.48% of the vote, the DA led the IFP by 0.92% in the race for second place.
The DA had won 423,608 votes (12.16%), versus the IFP’s 391,679 votes (11.24%).
If the DA do become the official opposition in KwaZulu-Natal, it will be the first time ever they have done so.
A reason could be the National Freedom Party, launched by former IFP chairwoman Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi in the beginning of 2011, which has received 266,230 votes, possibly cutting into the IFP’s base.
In the 2009 provincial elections in KwaZulu-Natal, the IFP came second behind the ANC with 22.4%, while the DA came third with 9.15%.
The vote count by early Friday morning was 95.13 percent in the province.
ANC KEEPS AHEAD IN JOBURG – Sapa
The African National Congress continued to maintain its lead in the City of Johannesburg early on Friday morning, as results from the municipality continued filtering in to the Electoral Commission of SA’s national results operations centre.
Looking at the provincial vote, the ruling party by 4.31am had 49.35% of the vote (267,625 votes), with the Democratic Alliance lying in second with 36.07% of the vote (195,641 votes).
The Economic Freedom Fighters held third place, with 9.12% (49,454 votes), while the IFP were a distant fourth with 1.31% (7097).
A total of 542,441 votes had been counted, with voter turnout in the metro at 73.56 percent.
OVER 93 PERCENT OF VOTES COUNTED – Sapa
Over 93% of votes had been counted in the fifth democratic election by the early hours of Friday morning.
At 3.25am, 20,806 of the 22,263 voting districts had been counted making up 93.46% of the count.
The African National Congress had 62.65% of the votes after reaching 10,331,313 votes, while the Democratic Alliance had 21.90% with 3,542,293 votes.
A total of 16,174,883 valid votes had been counted with 225,958 spoilt votes.
The early results indicated that Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters were in third place with 956,253 (5.91%) of the votes, with the Inkatha Freedom Party securing 404,222 votes.
The National Freedom Party had 268,187 votes, the United Democratic Movement 170,680, Freedom Front Plus 147,498 and Congress of the People 111,224 votes.
The African Christian Democratic Party had 89,568 votes, the African Independent Congress 87,678, Agang SA 42,145 and Pan Africanist Congress of Azania 32,468.
The registered population was 22,445,655 on the Electoral Commission of SA website.
EFF CLAIMS FOUL PLAY IN GAUTENG RESULTS – Sapa
The Economic Freedom Fighters called on Thursday night for an audit of the elections and votes in Gauteng.
“There are many incidents of lost ballots and ballots found in bins across Gauteng, and it appears that the IEC is colluding with the ANC to prevent the reality that the ANC might go below 50% in Gauteng,” EFF spokesman Mbuyiseni Ndlozi said.
He said that during the counting of the voting results, the numbers for the ANC in Gauteng were dwindling.
“At exactly 5.59pm the ANC was at 50.21% of the Gauteng vote and immediately after that, the Gauteng results started to slow down and almost came to an absolute halt because the ANC was heading towards below 50% of the Gauteng vote,” Ndlozi said.
He said the party suspected foul play.
The EFF was demanding the immediate release of the Gauteng results by the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC).
“The IEC should at least have the decency to explain to the EFF why results are being delayed and stop conniving with the ruling party,” he said.
Ndlozi said the provincial leadership had approached the electoral officer to demand an explanation as to why the results in Gauteng were not streaming in, because all voting districts had been counted and captured.
“The provincial elections officer could not give an adequate response and chose to lie that capturing was continuing while such was not the case,” he said.
The party also contacted the chief electoral officer but he refused to meet the party’s national leadership, Ndlozi said.
He said the party was demanding an explanation from the Gauteng provincial elections officer and chief electoral officer.
“The rest of the other issues we have identified about election irregularities will be raised once the final results have been counted in,” Ndlozi said.
-TIMESLIVE
