Pretoria – The African National Congress (ANC) remained firmly in the lead in eight provinces after 100% of all voting districts in all regions, with the exception of Gauteng, were declared on the IEC system late on Friday night.
While the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is expected to officially announce the 2014 national and provincial elections results, 100% of all voting districts in eight provinces had been declared by 10pm on Friday.
In the Eastern Cape, which has been the ANC’s stronghold since 1994, the ruling party won 70.09% of provincial votes, or 1.52 million, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) coming in as runner-up with 16.2% or 353 316 votes.
The United Democratic Movement (UDM), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Congress of the People (COPE) got 6.16%, 3.48% and 1.20% respectively.
In the Free State, the ANC scooped 69.85%, or 708 720 votes, while the DA won 16.23% of the votes. The EFF, Vryheidsfront Plus (VF+) and COPE each recorded 8.15%, 2.10% and 1.63%.
Counting in Gauteng had not been concluded, but the ANC stood at 53.69% overall, after 98.72% voting districts had been declared, with the DA having won 30.69% of the votes.
The DA became the official opposition to the ANC (64.52%) in KwaZulu-Natal, securing 12.76% of the votes, beating Inkatha Freedom Party (10.86%) and National Freedom Party (7.31%).
Limpopo proved to be a good base for the ANC again, with the ruling party securing 78.60% of votes ahead of the EFF’s 10.74% and the DA’s 6.48%.
The ruling party also won 78.23% of the total votes in Mpumalanga, while the DA came in second with 10.40% and the EFF securing third place (6.26%).
In the North West, the ANC won 67.39% of the total votes counted, while the EFF became the official opposition in the province with 13.21%, toppling close contender DA (12.73%).
The ANC took 64.40% of all votes in the Northern Cape – the first province where counting was concluded – while the DA and the EFF got 23.89% and 4.96% votes respectively.
The DA retained the Western Cape with 59.38% votes, with the ANC in second place with 32.89%, and the EFF in third place with 2.11%. – SAnews.gov.za
