The governing African National Congress (ANC) has taken an early lead as vote counting continued in South Africa on Thursday following hotly contested national and provincial elections held the previous day.
Latest results from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) showed that at 10.30am (0830 GMT) on Thursday – and with about 14 percent of the vote counted – the ANC had garnered 42.6 percent of the national vote.
The main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) had garnered 25.8 percent of the total vote while the militant Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) had managed to get 8.5 percent.
Vote counting started when most of the 23,293 polling stations closed around 9pm on Wednesday.
The IEC tally also showed the ANC leading in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces, with the ruling party’s best performance being in Limpopo province where it had taken 67.7 percent of the ballots.
The DA looked set to retain its Western Cape stronghold where it was leading with 48.9 percent of the vote.
The recently formed uMkhonto we Sizwe, which had former president Jacob Zuma as its front-runner, was leading in KwaZulu-Natal province where it had garnered 42.7 percent of the vote at the time of going to press.
Pollsters have forecasted that the ANC could see its parliamentary majority falling below 50 percent for the first time since independence in 1994.
The party with the highest number of seats in the National Assembly would have the right to choose a president.
Results for most of the polling stations are expected to be known by the end of Thursday.
JN/APA