Pretoria - Vote counting in South Africa’s nine provinces continued in earnest on Thursday with the Northern Cape being among the first to complete the process of counting votes.
The African National Congress (ANC) has emerged as the winner in the Northern Cape - as the province became the first to complete its vote counting for the 2016 Local Government Elections.
The ANC got 58.26 % while parties like the Congress of the People saw a significant drop in their support in the province. After lunchtime, with voting in all of the province’s 710 Voting Districts having been completed, the ANC emerged with a support of 58.26 %, followed by the DA with 24.85% and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 8.6% support.
Although the ANC's support dropped from the 63.12%, the party got in 2011, in the Northern Cape, the 58.26 percent puts the party firmly in charge of the province's municipalities. In 2011, the DA got 21.99% in the Northern Cape.
Meanwhile, in the Eastern Cape, shortly by 2:30 pm, 86% of election results had come out of the province with a total 4076 of the total 4699 Voting Districts having being completed.
In addition, in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality, voter turnout was at 64.81% in all the wards in the municipality by 3pm.
In the afternoon, the ANC had garnered 65.74% of support while the DA was at 20.37% and EFF at 4.98%.
In Gauteng, 46% of vote counting had been completed with the ANC leading with 43.86% support followed by the DA with 40.93 % and the EFF at 9.84%.
The National Results Operation Centre in Pretoria continued to be a hive of activity following voting in the country’s fifth municipal elections on Wednesday. The final results announcement is expected on Saturday. - SAnews.gov.za
