South Africa’s opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are in third place after more than 50 percent of the municipal elections vote have been counted and a senior party official has attributed this to “supporters making sure they made it to the polls on Election Day”.
Five years ago, the party received an overall tally of 8.6% nationally, EFF treasurer general Ompile Maotwe said.
With 52% of voting districts declared, the party was in third place nationally behind the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) – with almost 10% of the vote, according to the Independent Elections Commission (IEC).
“We have already surpassed the mark that we were in 2016. What we are getting now is just a bonus,” Maotwe said.
He added: “Remember, we were doing door to door campaign. We were doing community meetings. And our people promised they would come out in numbers, and vote for the EFF. The numbers are showing,” Maotwe said.
Preliminary election results revealed that the EFF had made in-roads in the hotly contested Metsimaholo Municipality in the Free State Province, where the party won two wards.
That set the ANC down to 15 wards out of a total of 23. The DA bagged six wards, the IEC said.
National vote counting continues.
NM/jn/APA