South Africa's Local Election Count Nears End: ANC Holds First Place Near 31%, DA Wins Gauteng
South Africa's local election count is nearing its end, with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) holding on to first place but with its lead sharply narrowed. Live results from the Electoral Commission (IEC) show the ANC on about 30.9 percent of the vote with roughly 98 percent of voting districts counted, ahead of the Democratic Alliance (DA) on about 24.6 percent, uMkhonto weSizwe (MKP) on about 9.6 percent and the Economic Freedom Fighters on about 6.3 percent. A projection by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research put the ANC's final share at about 31 percent and the DA's at about 24.5 percent, broadly in line with the count so far.
The elections, held on November 4, covered 8,825 council seats across 213 councils. Of the 7,609 seats declared so far, 3,090 have gone to the ANC. About 29 million valid votes have been counted.
The real movement is in the provinces and the metros. In Gauteng — the country's economic heartland, home to Johannesburg and Pretoria — the DA leads on the proportional-representation ballot with 34.2 percent against the ANC's 21.2 percent, on turnout of 53.1 percent. The DA holds Cape Town with 56.9 percent and leads in Johannesburg with 35.7 percent, Tshwane (Pretoria) with 34.0 percent and Ekurhuleni with 30.8 percent. In KwaZulu-Natal, MKP leads on the ward ballot with 34.1 percent, on turnout of 53.6 percent.
Reuters reported on November 6 that the ANC was on about 32 percent and the DA on 24 percent with 90 percent of the vote counted, as the count entered its final stretch. The official result has not yet been declared, and the commission is still releasing results district by district. In many councils no party has a majority, so coalition talks will be needed to govern.
Source: Reuters
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：南非选举委员会设立的投票站。A voting station set up by South Africa's Electoral Commission. (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)
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