Charles Cilliers We now know the exact breakdown of how many seats each of the successful parties have received. The Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) has declared the results officially on Saturday, and parties received a breakdown of the calculation of their final seat counts in the National Assembly, National Council of Provinces and each of the nine provincial legislatures. The IEC uses a mathematical system that ultimately allows some lucky parties to get “remainder” seats from certain collections of votes that don’t meet the automatic threshold for a seat, which are all awarded first. Crucially, at the end of the announcement, the IEC declared the elections free and fair. The breakdown of the seats was declared as follows: National Assembly ANC: 230 DA: 84 EFF: 44 IFP: 14 FF+: 10 ACDP: 4 NFP: 2 UDM: 2 GOOD: 2 Cope: 2 ATM: 2 AIC: 2 PAC: 1 Al Jama-ah: 1 Eastern Cape ANC: 44 DA: 10 EFF: 5 UDM: 2 FF+: 1 ATM: 1 Free State ANC: 19 DA: 6 EFF: 4 FF+: 1 Gauteng ANC: 37 DA: 20 EFF: 11 FF+: 3 IFP: 1 ACDP: 1 KwaZulu-Natal ANC: 44 IFP: 13 DA: 11 EFF: 8 NFP: 1 MF: 1 ACDP: 1 ATM: 1 Limpopo ANC: 38 EFF: 7 DA: 3 FF+: 1 Mpumalanga ANC: 22 EFF: 4 DA: 3 FF+: 1 North West ANC: 21 EFF: 6 DA: 4 FF+: 2 Northern Cape ANC: 18 DA: 8 EFF: 3 FF+: 1 Western Cape DA: 24 ANC: 12 EFF: 2 GOOD: 1 ACDP: 1 FF+: 1 Al Jama-ah: 1 Watch the announcement and President Cyril Ramaphosa’s speech below, courtesy of SABC: Earlier: The ANC has won the national majority vote again with a majority of 57.51%. While they are significantly down from the 62.15% they won in the last election, it is still a solid majority and a strong mandate for Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidency in the sixth democratic parliament. The ANC crept just over the 10 million votes mark on Saturday morning, which is a reflection of the lowest-ever voter turnout since 1994, which analysts have mostly blamed on a combination of voter disaffection and poor weather on Wednesday in several parts of the country. The ruling party’s national majority was followed in the results by the DA, which dropped to 20.76%, and the EFF, which grew significantly from the last election’s 6.35% to grab nearly 10.8% of the national vote. The IFP, which gained about 3.37% of the vote, jumped from the 2.4% it gained in 2014. The ANC also just managed a majority win in Gauteng, which was the last province to reach completion of the count, since it is the most populous. The ANC also won all the provinces except the Western Cape, where it is the official opposition to the DA again. The DA is the opposition once again in the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Free State and Gauteng, while the EFF is yet again the opposition in Limpopo and North West, while taking that role from the DA in Mpumalanga. The IFP has also regained its status as the official opposition in KwaZulu-Natal, snatching second place from the DA. The EFF, IFP, Freedom Front Plus and ACDP saw gains, as some voters chose to cast their votes away from their previous favourites. The election could be considered a good one for the African Transformation Movement (ATM) and Patricia De Lille’s newly established GOOD party, who each secured enough votes to be awarded seats in parliament. The election has seen both of South Africa’s largest parties losing ground to some smaller parties, with numerous new parties nevertheless making little to no impact. This year, a record of 48 parties contested the national ballot, despite the high cost of doing so, and most of them now have little to nothing to show for it. They will also lose their hefty deposit fees. Parties contesting the national election and all provincial elections would have been required to deposit R605,000 in total (R200,000 and R45,000 x 9). The many who failed to win any seats have forfeited these amounts to the National Revenue Fund. As many as 27 of the smaller parties have expressed dissatisfaction with how the polls were conducted by the IEC and threatened on Friday to interdict the results. The IEC said on Saturday they would oppose any such urgent application, adding that they did not think it had any grounds in law to succeed. For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.<doc-sep>From 249 seats to 230, the ANC shrinks in Parliament In the 2014 general elections, the party won a total of 249 seats, meaning in the 2019 elections, it lost 19 seats. PRETORIA – The African National Congress (ANC) has bagged 230 seats in the National Assembly following South Africa’s sixth democratic elections. Speaking in Pretoria on Saturday, the Independent Electoral Commission chair Glen Mashinini announced the ANC as once again the party that would rule the country for a five-year term. In the 2014 general elections, the party won a total of 249 seats, meaning in the 2019 elections, it lost 19 seats. The second party to secure the most number of seats in Parliament was the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 84 seats. The DA had 89 seats in 2014 – losing five. However, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) grew from 25 seats in 2014 to to 44 in 2019. ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa then gave a keynote address, saying the people had voted for a “country they’d like to see in peace with itself and the rest of the world.” He thanked all those who took part in ensuring free and fair elections: “We pay tributes to millions who went to polls to choose public representatives who will help them realise their shared dreams. Many people braved the rain, the cold.” Our New National Assembly.... for 6th parliament pic.twitter.com/KVFG4Jyz0t — EWN Reporter (@ewnreporter) May 11, 2019<doc-sep>
The Independent Electoral Commission has completed its task of counting the votes cast in the 2019 national elections. The ruling party, the ANC claimed 57.5% of the count – though this reflects its worst performance in any national election. This was followed by the DA with 20.8% of the vote and the EFF with 10.8% of the vote. Smaller parties that made waves in the election include the IFP, the Freedom Front Plus, the ACDP and the UDM, all of whom will be returning to parliament this year. There were also a few parties who made their debut in the elections, and managed to secure at least some representation in parliament. This includes GOOD, led by former Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille, as well as the African Transformation Movement, headed up by former government spokesperson Mzwanele Manyi. The graph below outlines the final national results. While these figures represent the results of 100% of the votes counted by the IEC, the body did announce that over 1,000 voting stations would be audited amid claims of irregularities. No date has been provided for when the audits will take place or be completed. Provincial results Across the provinces, the ANC managed to secure an outright majority in almost all the regions, with the only exception being the Western Cape, where the DA maintained its majority. The party almost lost its majority in Gauteng, briefly dropping below 50% during the count, before ending on 50.19%. The graphs below outline the provincial results, showing the leading party and its closest competitors. The ANC secured a two-thirds majority in Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, and got over 50% of the vote in the Free State, Northern Cape and KwaZulu Natal. The EFF took over as the official opposition in three provinces, namely Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the North West. The IFP is the official opposition in KwaZulu Natal, and the DA is the official opposition in the rest (excluding the Western Cape, where the DA leads and the ANC is the official opposition). Read: Vote counting almost complete: here are the results