IEC exceeds voter turnout target

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Pretoria - The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) is confident it has exceeded its predicted target of 80 percent voter turnout at the fourth democratic elections on Wednesday.

Currently, the total votes cast in certain voting districts from all the nine provinces stands at 76.82 percent.

However, completed figures of voter turnout in certain voting districts, especially in the rural areas of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape were not yet readily available.

Before South Africans went to the polls, the IEC predicted that 80 percent of the 23 million voters would cast their ballots.

The total votes cast in completed voting districts stands at 3,431,717. According to the current voter turnout, the Western Cape is still leading with 572 550 and is followed by Gauteng with 547 119.

According to IEC chairperson, Dr Brigalia Bam, as the election drew to a close on Wednesday night, voters flocked in large numbers to the polls, causing long queues and a shortage of voting material in certain voting stations.

Presiding officers scrambled to supply polling stations with voting material. All stations closed at 9pm. However, all voters who were in the queue at the time were allowed to vote.
Election fever has gripped the country, with voters now anxiously waiting to see how their party has fared in the national and provincial elections.
Results are trickling in at the IEC results centre and early indications are that with the African National Congress (ANC) in lead after more than three million votes had been counted in the national elections so far.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is coming in second place on the leader board with 636 637 votes. In third place is the recently-established Cope with 251 200 votes.

The IFP is in fourth position with 86,503 votes, followed by the ID with 54852, the Freedom Front Plus with 39,055. The A Party is last with 572 votes.