58 percent of votes captured so far

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Pretoria - About 58 percent of votes have been received and counted by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC).

IEC Chairperson Bragalia Bam said everything was going well with the IEC staff working very hard and hoping that by the end of the day, the figures would have increased.

"The finalising of sending all the results and verification is very crucial," Bam said.

As from 11:30 am, 6 967 181 had been counted, nationally with the African National Congress (ANC) leading 61.6 percent and 1 972 seats, followed by Democratic Alliance (DA) 24.6 percent and 618 seats and COPE 2.6 percent with 89 seats. The new kid on the block, National Freedom Party (NFP) has so far managed to secure 2.3 percent with 40 seats.

Commenting on the progress of the results, Political Analyst Adam Habbib commended the IEC for doing a good job.

"The elections were free and fair, we will have a good turnout compared to the last elections, maybe over 50 percent," said Habbib.

However, he noted that a number of ANC members didn't turn up to vote, which gave the DA an opportunity to go up to 24 percent. .