Political parties react to early results released by IEC

With counting completed in just 4% of the country’s districts in the national elections – the ANC has almost 49% of the national vote, the DA 32% and the EFF almost 6%. The FF Plus sits at close to 5%.

These are very early numbers and no predictions can be made at this stage.

Counting is progressing rapidly in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape with counting completed at 8% of the voting districts. Things are moving more slowly in Gauteng and Limpopo – where less than 1% of voting districts have completed counting.

The newly formed Good Party, led by former Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille, says they’re happy so far with their performance in early counting.

The Good Party is, as expected performing best in the Western Cape and stands third behind the DA and ANC. The Good Party’s National Spokesperson Nthabiseng Lepoko says, “We are actually very grateful for what we’re seeing currently and that the people they are showing a little bit of confidence and maybe more later. At the moment we don’t know what the outcome will be. Which ever seats we gonna get, nationally or provincially, we will be happy with the outcome.”

The EFF says the early results indicate that the party is growing in every province in the country. EFF spokesperson, Mbuyiseni Ndlozi says, “What is definitive is that we are part of the race. From the first reported results, we were part of the race, that has never happened before. Every single result the EFF is represented in every province. You can already see that our growth is right on the way.”

The African National Congress says the first results released by the IEC indicate a positive feedback from the electorate.

However there are concerns from the DA about the quality of the ink used at some voting stations. The opposition party is also worried the apparent shortage of ballots at some stations and the late opening of others. The DA’s Mike Moriarty says it’s still very early in the counting process.

The Congress of the People (COPE) says it is confident that the final results of the elections will prove that the party upholds the rights of the country’s Constitution.

The party is currently sitting with less than half a percentage point of the national vote with counting completed in close to 10% of voting districts nationwide.

However, the party’s Dennis Bloem says COPE still hopes for a doubling of its final vote figures.
“There’s many people who believe in what we have said that we respect the constitution of this country and we still believe in that up until now. We are not going after popularity. We are going on facts and we are standing by what we have said and we will be proven right.”

Various political parties wait with baited breath to hear the outcomes of the elections. New kids on the block, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) has high hopes.

ATM national chairperson Mandisa Mashiya says, “We’re going to shock many people. We are going to get double digits representation in parliament.”

Whilst Women Forward (WF) believes they’ve covered much ground to gain more than one seat in the national legislature. “We are very confident that we’re going to parliament.”

These are very early numbers and no prediction can be made at this stage.

The commission expressed its satisfaction with the smooth progress of voting, despite isolated incidents where voting operations were affected by weather conditions, community unrest, power outages and some logistical challenges.

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