Election Update: Voting Continued until 1AM in Western Cape, First Results Coming Through

The Electoral Commission (IEC) has reported that voters were in line well into the night, with the last Western Cape voters casting their ballots at 1AM on Thursday morning.

IEC Result Operation Centre at Century City Conference Centre, Cape Town

Michael Hendrickse, Electoral Head of the Western Cape, has issued a sincere apology to the many voters who endured long queues well into the early hours of Thursday to exercise their voting rights. The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) confirms that assistance was provided to the last voters in the province until 1 am. 

Throughout the day many voting stations had trouble with the Voter Management Devices (VMD), but the Deputy CEO Electoral Operations, Masego Sheburi, said earlier on Wednesday that this should not affect the election process: “The VMD is not a requirement in law for the voting process, it is an addition and an additional safeguard”. However, Hendrickse did later say that the IEC could have prepared better for being let down by technology. 

Now that all ballots have been casted, the results are slowly trickling in. On a national level about 16.65% have been counted with ANC coming out on top receiving 42.48% of the votes. ANC is followed by DA (25.76%) and EFF (8.5%). In The Western Cape 29.45% of the provincial ballots have been counted with DA taking the lead, followed by ANC and PA.

Done by: Veerle Kroon