ANC officials keep an eye on the results board at the IEC National Results Operation Center (ROC) on Thursday 9 May 2019. Photo: Leila Dougan With half the votes in Gauteng counted on Thursday night, opposition parties were still hopeful the ANC might fall under 50%, but the ruling party looked like it might just scrape over the line to keep its majority in the country’s economic heartland. ANC deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte was watching the results come in from Gauteng on Thursday night, waiting for the “Soweto surge” that could solidify the party’s majority in the most contested province in the 2019 general elections. With 51% of Gauteng results captured, the ANC was leading in the province with 51.07% of the vote at 9pm on Thursday. Opposition parties still hoped the province would be hung, making a coalition necessary, but prediction models suggested the ANC would retain its majority by a razor-thin margin. “We’re confident we’ve passed the golden 51%. That’s what they say in electioneering science — once you’ve reached that point it’s very difficult to drive you back, but we’re confident we’ll do well in Gauteng,” said Duarte at the IEC’s national results operation centre in Tshwane. The DA was sitting with 26.7% and EFF 14.23% of the provincial vote at 9pm. In 2014, the DA won 30.78% and EFF 10.3% in Gauteng. At around 6pm, with results still coming in from Gauteng’s metros, Intellidex and Daily Maverick analyst Peter Attard Montalto predicted the ANC would win 50.56% in the province, the DA 26.63% and EFF 14.99%. At the same time the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research predicted similar figures, but with the DA taking 27.5%. DA Federal Council chairperson James Selfe said the party’s models tipped the ANC to take 50.2%. Duarte said: “It’s not a 60% but it’s not going to be less than 50%, hopefully.” “The night is young,” she warned. The DA was able to form coalitions and govern Johannesburg and Tshwane after the 2016 local government elections, with the support of the EFF, which voted with the coalitions on a case-by-case basis. The DA then turned its attention and resources to do the same in Gauteng. A weak performance in Gauteng would be a significant blow for the DA, particularly to its leader Mmusi Maimane and premier candidate Solly Msimanga, which held its key election rallies in the province and moved its head office from Cape Town to Johannesburg after the 2016 elections. Standing near the large IEC results screens, Duarte was cautiously optimistic. While her party was still trailing its 2014 result, the ANC was out-performing pre-election polls that suggested the province might be governed by a coalition after the election. She said the ANC’s door-to-door campaign suggested there was a “positive swing back” in the year-and-a-half since President Cyril Ramaphosa was elected to lead the party, embarked on an ANC renewal campaign and launched commissions of inquiry into State Capture, including at SARS and the PIC. The main opposition parties were still hopeful the ANC might win less than 50% of the vote and the province would be governed by a coalition. Selfe said it would be an “interesting result” if the ANC was forced to work with a coalition partner and said the party often governed better in coalition administrations. The Freedom Front Plus, Inkatha Freedom Party, African Christian Democratic Party and African Transformation Movement were trailing the EFF in the provincial vote on Thursday evening. On the DA’s lacklustre performance in the province, Selfe said: “I think we will have to interrogate that.” Speaking at the IEC’s provincial results centre in Johannesburg, DA MPL Ashore Sarupen said the number of black DA voters had increased across the board. “Black votes have doubled in places like KwaThema. We went from 3% to 7%.” Back in Tshwane, EFF chairperson Dali Mpofu said his party was relaxed as it had significantly improved on its 2014 results across the country. He was still hopeful the ANC might fall below 50% in Gauteng. “It would bring an interesting dynamic if Gauteng was hung. Obviously by how much it’s hung would then determine who has to talk to who,” said Mpofu. Freedom Front Plus has been the surprise of the 2019 elections and by Thursday evening it had tripled its share of the Gauteng vote compared with 2014, up to 3.6%. The party campaigned on a hard line against issues such as land expropriation without compensation and appeared to benefit from conservative white voters shifting away from the DA. “I don’t want to sound arrogant, but we worked very hard in educating the voters to make them understand that the Freedom Front Plus is the last bastion for these elections. It was now or never. So we had to work to make people aware of what they were voting for, especially the minority parties,” said the party’s Amanda de Lange. Reports of voting irregularities, including double voting and a lack of voting materials at some polling stations, have marred the elections. IEC leaders have assured the country that the elections are credible but have taken steps to ensure people believe the process is legitimate. The IEC’s Gauteng provincial deputy manager Ledimo Nthejane said there had been grievances raised by political parties, but said: “Where political representatives raised issues with the Electoral Commission we investigated those matters and provided political parties with the necessary information of the investigation.” Nthejane told Daily Maverick that where there was reasonable evidence that someone had voted more than once “the matter was referred to the South African Police” and that “investigations are currently underway”. With results still coming in, the situation in Gauteng is expected to be clear by Friday morning. DM Greg Nicolson, Yanga Sibembe, Ayanda Mthethwa and Lelethu Tonisi Follow Save More<doc-sep>Speaking to Eyewitness News at the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) results centre in Gauteng, the DA’s Ashor Sarupen said the party was encouraged that it had increased its support in some townships on the East Rand. JOHANNESBURG - Democratic Alliance (DA) said it doesn’t believe the African National Congress (ANC) would manage to get a majority in Gauteng, while the ANC said it had nothing to worry about. Speaking to Eyewitness News at the Electoral Commission of South Africa's (IEC) results centre in Gauteng, the DA’s Ashor Sarupen said the party was encouraged that it had increased its support in some townships on the East Rand. “It looks like the DA has made significant further inroads into black support, cases like KwaThema where we’ve doubled our votes from the previous elections. It’s looking pretty good.” The ANC’s Ezra Letsoalo said while it was too early to predict the results, the party believed it had done enough work on the ground. “We’ve been reading through some of the counted votes as they come in. The picture that we’re getting is a positive one.” The ANC has been steady at the 50% mark, the DA at 27.8% and the Economic Freedom Fighters has broken through the 14% mark. READ OUR LIVE ELECTIONS BLOG FOR RESULT UPDATES (Edited by Zamangwane Shange)<doc-sep>South Africans head to the polls today to vote in the country’s sixth national elections. Over 26.7 million people registered to vote in the 2019 elections, with around 70% of that number (18.7 million) expected to actually show up to vote today. The country’s close to 23,000 voting stations will remain open through to 21h00 this evening, with vote counts updating throughout the day. All results and information will come from the IEC’s Elections Results Centre in Pretoria. The country’s general news outlets will cover the elections throughout the day – with elections maps, and live feeds from the results centre. These dedicated portals can be found below: Official results will be available from the IEC directly, using its results portal: The final pronouncement of the 2019 election results are expected to made on Saturday, 11 May 2019. 2019 Election context In the 2014 elections, the ANC won 62.2% of the vote, with the DA securing 22.0% as the country’s official opposition. The EFF, which contested the national vote for the first time that year, debuted at 6.4% of the vote. Looking at predictions for 2019, eyes will be on the ANC which is largely expected to show a decline in support (to between 55% and 60%) with the DA anticipated to also show a drop, or remain fairly flat (18% to 20%). The EFF, meanwhile, is expected to show a major boost in support numbers, with some outlets expecting around double the support (between 11% and 14%). Read: South African election results: 2014 vs 2019 predictions<doc-sep>
The elections results are in and the majority vote in Gauteng has been retained by the ruling African National Congress (ANC). It was the closest of provincial battles, with the ANC winning by less than a full percentage point. While the ruling party will be happy to retain some modicum of administrative confidence, a marked drop in support, both in Gauteng and on the National ballot, signifies a dwindling of trust. Final election results paint grim picture for ANC, DA No longer can the ANC claim to possess an ‘overwhelming majority’ – a position of power enjoyed by the ruling party since between 1999 and 2014. While the party managed to hold onto Gauteng, it’s national tally is the lowest it has ever been, sparking debate around the ‘demise’ of the once-mighty liberation movement turned government. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has also experienced damning losses on both national and provincial ballots. The official opposition would’ve hoped to have snatched Gauteng from under the ANC, through strategic coalition agreements with other minority parties. This hope, emboldened by vast municipal control in major metros, has been dashed – not such much by the ANC, but by resilient electoral efforts by both the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus), the latter drawing voters away from the DA’s direct support base. Gauteng final election results 2019 The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) completed its tally on Saturday morning, after promising that preliminary results would be finalised on Friday night. Gauteng, which was the last province to have all its votes counted and captured, was won by the ANC. Election results, Gauteng: ANC – 50.19% support with 2 168 253 votes DA – 27.45% support with 1 185 743 votes EFF – 14.69% support with 634 387 votes VF Plus – 3.56% support with 153 844 votes IFP – 0.89% support with 38 263 votes ACDP – 0.71% support with 30 605 votes ATM – 0.25% support with 10 861 votes PAC – 0.24% support with 10 534 votes COPE – 0.24% support with 10 197 votes UDM – 0.21% support with 9 267 votes The final results announcement and ceremony are due to take place at 18:00 on Saturday evening, at the IEC Results Operation Centre in Tshwane.