IEC Chief Electoral Officer Si Mamabolo, Wednesday night. (Jan Gerber/News24)
- The IEC plans to announce the election results “over the weekend.”
- While all results are in from the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal is the furthest behind with only about 75% completed as of 4pm on Friday.
- To keep track of the latest results, Election map.
The South African Electoral Commission (IEC) said it would announce the results “over the weekend”.
By 16:00 on Friday, results from 71.76% of all polling stations had been collected.
“The Electoral Commission is working hard to ensure the finalisation of the collection and audit of the results of the 2024 national and state elections and is expected to complete this process soon,” IEC Chief Electoral Officer Si Mamabolo said at a press conference at the National Results Centre (ROC).
He said counting at all polling stations has been completed and all results have been received by local offices.
“The process that is currently underway is capturing this information into our systems for counting and seat allocation,” he said.
While all polling stations in the sparsely populated Northern Cape have completed voting, the hotly contested province of KwaZulu-Natal is lagging behind with only 3,749 of 4,974 polling constituencies having completed voting, or 75.37 percent.
As of 4:00 p.m., the progress of obtaining results in other states is as follows:
- In the Eastern Cape, voting was completed in 4,485 of the 4,868 constituencies, with a voter turnout of 92.13%.
- In the Free State province, 1,515 of the 1,586 constituencies were completed, for a voter turnout of 95.52%.
- In Gauteng, voting was completed in 2,107 of the 2,797 constituencies, for a voter turnout of 75.33%.
- In Mpumalanga, 1,665 of the 1,811 constituencies were completed, giving a voter turnout of 91.94%.
- In the Northern Cape, voting was completed in 730 of the 730 constituencies, resulting in a 100% voter turnout.
- In Limpopo province, voting was completed in 2,598 of the 3,216 constituencies, for a voter turnout of 80.78%.
- In the North West, 1,540 out of 1,738 constituencies were completed, with a voter turnout of 88.61%.
- In the Western Cape, voting in 1,399 of the 1,572 constituencies was completed, for a voter turnout of 88.99%.
By law, the IEC must announce the results within seven days of the polling day. Typically, the IEC announces the results well before that date.
It was initially expected to be released on Saturday but Sunday was also mooted, with Mamabolo saying he would release the results “over the weekend”.
Mamabolo also expressed the commission's regret over what happened this morning when results could not be displayed on the Results Management Centre leaderboard and website on Friday morning.
“I want to emphasize that our systems did not crash and no data was leaked. The Commission went into the election with a complete IT plan, including backup and recovery in case of need. This situation did not occur.”
“The incident involved the activation of necessary controls to prevent results from appearing on the leaderboard, a feature of the results system. Retrieval of results and other results collation operations proceeded uninterrupted,” Mamabolo said.
Read | “Elections are never perfect,” says IEC after losing at the ballot box
Meanwhile, the African Union electoral observer mission, led by former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, issued a preliminary statement on the election.
“South Africans freely exercised their constitutionally guaranteed right to vote and cast their vote peacefully,” the report said.
On Wednesday, the team deployed 65 observers to visit 297 polling stations in all South Africa's provinces.
“Long queues were noticeable on the day. While the day was generally peaceful and calm, observers reported sporadic incidents at some polling stations, mainly due to long queues and slow processing. Delays were caused by longer and third ballot papers, malfunctions of the Voting Management Device (VMD) and late opening of some polling stations,” the interim report said.
Rolling Coverage | Final projections show the ANC maintaining control in the North West, Mpumalanga and the Free State.
The report also noted that the elections, the seventh since the end of apartheid, “took place at a time of renewed enthusiasm among South Africans to consolidate the gains of democracy”.
“This election was particularly fierce due to the emergence of several new political parties. While the past six elections have been peaceful and credible, the 2024 election was characterized by a tense political environment that was further intensified by several legal cases.”
“The pre-election period saw heightened tensions and concerns over social media's potential to spread fake news, disinformation and misinformation, and potentially incite violence. However, the election proceeded without any major incidents and maintained a peaceful pattern of conduct.”
“Despite difficulties and tensions, the 2024 elections were conducted peacefully, demonstrating the resilience of South Africa's democratic process.”
The final report is expected to be released within two months.
