LGE 2021 early results trickle in as counting continues

The results of South Africa’s sixth Local Government election are trickling in amid concerns of a low voter turnout.

With 9% of votes in the Local Government, Elections counted across South Africa by 5 am on Tuesday morning, support for the African National Congress (ANC) at the polls stands at just under 45%, while the Democratic Alliance (DA) has 28% and the  Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) 7.5% support from voters.

Results have been returned in more than 2220 of the 23 148 voting districts.

A result has been announced in only one of the 213 municipalities so far, where the ANC has secured 50.5% of the vote in the KhaI Ma municipal region in the Northern Cape.

Around 90 of the 8794 seats have been allocated, of which the bulk have been secured by the ANC (53) and the DA (28).

First parties to win ward seats: ANC, DA FF Plus

ANC, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) were the first parties to win ward seats in the local government elections.

The parties have won seats in 3 different wards in the Free State and Northern Cape.

In total, three seats have been won across the country from 17 districts where vote counting has been completed.

LGE 2021 Results | Results continue to trickle in: Prof Pravesh Debba

KwaZulu-Natal

In KwaZulu-Natal, community protests in isolated areas like Umzinto and Camperdown led to voting being delayed.

Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu says while service delivery protests play a role in any democracy, it should not deter those who wish to cast their vote from doing so.

“It’s something that is regrettable at this time and age where you find that people demonstrate intolerance. Because under normal circumstances looking at the number of years that have gone past with our first election, you would have expected that people would be politically mature, but this is not the case, what is lacking is political education firstly among political leaders themselves, but then secondly among the electorate if you are protesting it’s fine, it’s protected in the constitution. But then your protest should not interfere with my own right,” says Mngomezulu.

LGE 2021 | An update from the SABC’s Jayed Paulse in KwaZulu-Natal

The results of the local government election in KwaZulu-Natal are beginning to come in.

According to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) results dashboard, with 3% of the count in the province complete by 5am on Tuesday morning, the African National Congress (ANC) is leading with 48.49%.

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has 26.34 and the Democratic Alliance (DA) has 9.87%.

All eyes are on the hotly contested eThekwini Metro, the only metro in the province.

Limpopo

Limpopo has captured 3% of the votes from Monday’s ‘s local government elections by 5 am on Tuesday. 97% of 3 186 voting stations have completed counting the votes. The ANC, Freedom Front Plus, the DA and The Service Forum for Service Delivery are featuring strongly in the results.

LGE 2021 | An update from Limpopo

First results out, political party reactions: