Political parties in North West pleased with results

Political parties in the North West say they are pleased with their results, so far. However, voter apathy is a huge concern.

Turnout in the province was at 38%, which means only about 600 000 of the 1.6-million registered voters pitched at the polls.

Political parties contesting in the North West are waiting in anticipation as results come in.

ANC’s Interim Provincial Co-ordinator, Hlomane Chauke, says the party did well.

“We are happy that we are retaining most of our municipalities so far. We do have one hung municipality in Lekwa Teemane. We are waiting for the complete results but we are still confident.”

The EFF’s Papiki Babuile says their support in the North West has increased. “As the EFF we are so far happy with the current results because it shows that the municipalities where they have completed counting, the EFF increased its support, even the number of councillors. We are happy with that because the people of this province are continuing to show their trust in the EFF.”

DA provincial leader Leon Basson and Freedom Front Plus leader Erns Kleynhans say they too are satisfied with the results thus far.

“The DA is happy with the current status that we are in, in North West. We are not below 12% and it will still grow. We are waiting for more wards as they come in. We believe we’ll get the same results we got in 2016,” says Basson.

” As the Freedom Front Plus, we are happy so far. We really showed growth according to the stats we have and especially wards that we’ve won, also we have seats in ways that we never had seats before,” says Kleynhans.

A Local Governance Expert Dr. Tshepang Molale says the low voter turnout is a message to the ANC.

“The ANC, yes it’s doing well but one would say in the various councils, we saw scooping about five confirmed councils so far. This does not necessarily mean that the picture is so wonderful and nice, particularly because of the total registered voters in the province about 38% ended up turning to the polls. More than 60% of the voters did not go to vote. This translates to the party loyalist who went in numbers to support their parties,” Molale explains.

The Electoral Commission in the North West says it is on track to complete vote counting by midnight on Wednesday.

“All our municipalities, all eighteen of them were affected by a power cut yesterday. We will definitely complete the processes by the end of business day today and our business day now is actually twelve midnight. A challenge is a phase at which auditors do the work because they are not at the same phase as us. Perhaps fifty percent less than we are but also we have to make sure that the results are audited well and thoroughly,” says Provincial Electoral Officer, Dr Tumelontle Thiba.

Vote counting continues: