Johannesburg - Political parties have begun crunching the numbers as votes from across the country are being validated and revealed.
The latest results as of 9.30am show the ANC in the lead nationally.
Just over 3 million votes had been tallied and validated as of 9.30am. The ANC has received about 1 839 701 votes, the DA 870 777 and the EFF 276 707. Smaller parties such as the IFP have tallied 52 706 votes and newcomer the GOOD party has so far received over 24 000 votes.
In percentages, about 27% of voting districts have been counted at 9.30am with the voter turnout sitting at 65%. The ANC has about 55% of votes, DA at 26% and the EFF at 8.27%.
The Freedom Front Plus has also received interesting numbers with the party scoring 108 000 votes.
A large number of votes have been mainly from smaller voting districts with bigger districts especially in urban areas such as Gauteng could be expected at 11 am or noon.
On Wednesday night the first district to report results was a small district in the Eastern Cape. Umzimvubu residents in the Eastern Cape cast 24 votes with 11 going to ANC and 8 to the EFF. The UDM received two votes while the PAC, ASC and ATM received one vote each.
Political parties have camped at the national results centre in Pretoria with many crunching down the numbers to understand where their performance stands.
The ANC spokesperson Pule Mabe said the ANC was impressed with the numbers thus far and predicts the party will have a strong showing.
“It looks like the people of South Africa have understood that the only way to grow South Africa is when we work with them,” Mabe said.
When asked if the party was thinking about possible coalitions especially for Gauteng where it seems the party may face a tough time reaching 50%, Pule dismissed such suggestions.
“We’re not even going to venture into that space. We are here assessing the situation, and the ANC is able to sit, do an assessment and make a determination on what needs to happen,” he said.
The FF+ spokesperson Philip van Staden said the party was impressed with its numbers so far.
So far the numbers for the FF+ look good, but we must careful not to be over positive. I think we are going to see some significant things during the day according to our numbers.
These elections have not been without drama with reports of possible voter fraud. On Wednesday night the IEC held a late night briefing in an attempt to calm speculations about possible voter fraud.
IEC commissioner Mosotho Moepya held a late-night briefing on Wednesday night in an attempt to dismiss any possibilities of voter fraud.
There were two instances in which certain individuals claimed that they were able to bypass the security measures put in place by the IEC to stop attempts of voter fraud.
In one of the instances, an individual said he was able to vote twice after visiting a different voting station when he noticed that his ID had not been stamped.
Moeypa said the commission views these allegations as concerning and serious and has launched investigations into the matters.
He said the commission was confident that the various security measures it has in place were strong enough to curb attempts at voter fraud.
Moyepa urged the public to report instances they suspect there had been voter fraud.
“Where evidence is found to support electoral fraud, the Electoral Commission will firstly quarantine the results of the affected voting districts and secondly will pursue criminal charges against the perpetrators. The electoral process also allows for objections to be raised by political parties throughout the process. This includes instances where they believe a voter was ineligible to vote or has voted more than once,” he said.