A man casts a ballot at a polling station in Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 29, 2024. (Xinhua/Zhang Yudong)
South Africa's electoral body announced that by 4:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, over 22 percent of votes had been captured in the country's 2024 national and provincial elections.
JOHANNESBURG, May 31 (Xinhua) -- The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa announced that by 4:00 p.m. (1400 GMT) on Thursday, over 22 percent of votes had been captured in the country's 2024 national and provincial elections (NPE 2024).
IEC Chief Electoral Officer Sy Mamabolo said that the commission is working diligently to conclude and release the results within the mandated seven-day period. "The last ballot was cast in the early hours at the Arcadia Swimbad voting station in Tshwane, thus marking the conclusion of voting in NPE 2024," he said when sharing an update about the electoral process.
Mamabolo told reporters that by 4:00 p.m., results had been finalized for 22.6 percent of the 23,293 voting districts, which represents 2.3 million votes cast. "A result is considered complete only when a result slip has been scanned into an image, captured onto the results system, audited by independent auditors, and has gone through the automated results system exception parameters," Mamabolo said.
People wait in line to cast their ballots at a voting station in Soweto in Johannesburg, South Africa, on May 29, 2024. (Photo by Shiraaz Mohamed/Xinhua)
Noting that results have been concluded for 5,147 of the 23,293 voting districts so far, he said 28 percent of votes in Gauteng Province have been captured, 28 percent in Limpopo, 36 percent in North West, and 63 percent in Northern Cape.
With the election results released so far, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) was leading at 43 percent, the Democratic Alliance at above 24 percent, and the Economic Freedom Fighters at 8.86 percent. The ANC has received over 1 million of the over 2 million votes counted so far.
A total of 56 percent of votes have been counted in Free State Province, with KwaZulu-Natal sitting at 23 percent, Mpumalanga at 42 percent, Eastern Cape at 58 percent, and Western Cape at 57 percent. ■
