The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has asserted that, if the voting process continues to run smoothly, it expects to release the results by Sunday.
More than 26 million eligible voters are expected to cast their votes as the national and provincial elections which kicked off at 7am on Wednesday morning.
On Monday and Tuesday about 1.6 million South African citizens who had registered for a special vote had the opportunity to make their mark..
The 2024 elections are the most hotly contested polls since the dawn of democracy, with 52 political parties contesting in 23 000 polling stations across the country.
Despite glitches since Monday, international and local observers have been on the lookout to witness free and fair elections.
Speaking at the IEC Results Operations Centre on Wednesday morning, the commission’s deputy chief electoral officer, Masego Sheburi ,said officers stationed at the voting stations would start the counting process as soon as the station closed.
He said in a television interview: “As soon as the station is closed, we’ll start the process of counting.
“I estimate that by about 12.30 this evening, we will have a set of such few results ... typically small voting stations close to our offices.
“However, the commission plans to release the result this time around the fourth day, not because we are not prepared, but because we want to factor in the third ballot to deal with the 50% additional work imposed by the third ballot,” Sheburi said.
He said that despite small glitches with some voting stations opening late, everything else was running smoothly.
The Star