Counting phase continues in crucial election stage
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After the national elections day where millions of South Africans queued for many hours at the 23 292 voting stations across the country, the elections have shifted into the next crucial stage.
South Africans showed up in their millions to vote at various polling stations. Registered voters who turned up to cast their ballots on Wednesday were met with snaking queues and technical glitches with the voter management devices.
The IEC Provincial Electoral officer, Michael Hendrickse says a late surge, especially in the metro areas, also complicated matters.
“The last voting station was in Cape Town, in the metro. And it came in about 1 o’clock when our voting concluded. We have to look at our own processes because it’s unacceptable that so many people were waiting for so long and have difficult conversations and see how we can improve,”
Under 50% of the votes counted in the Western Cape, the DA maintains its clear majority, followed by the ANC and then the Patriotic Alliance.
But in the rural areas, the political landscape could be shifting, according to analysts.
Free State University Political Analyst, Dr Halan Cloete says, “Traditionally ANC used to control the rural areas but that flipped to the DA. And now we have seen in the last by-election in Oudtshoorn and Swartland, municipalities where the Patriotic Alliance took traditional DA wards from them. So, it will be interesting to see how the rural landscape will change.”
Right now, it’s all eyes on those moving numbers on the boards, if the eyes are not on doing some number-crunching for seats in the National Assembly and provincial legislatures.
Most of the Central and Little Karoo results have been counted in the Western Cape:
