ANA and Citizen reporter The electorate has decided on the future of politics in SA both nationally and in each of the nine provinces. Keep track of the results in The Citizen's live electoral map. The live feed into the map from the IEC below will update automatically as votes are counted and tallied countrywide. Check back regularly to see how power will ultimate be apportioned in South Africa’s sixth democratic dispensation since 1994. Follow the elections live report blow by blow here. Follow the election results as they happen below. You can click or tap on each of the provinces to bring up the provincial results (note that they do not reflect the provincial legislature ballots). ﻿ The ANC was leading in early official results on Thursday following the first electoral test of whether President Cyril Ramaphosa has reinvigorated support for the ruling party. With just over half of voting districts tallied, the Election Commission count put the African National Congress ahead, with its closest rival the Democratic Alliance trailing at a distant 23 percent. Ramaphosa, 66, took over last year after the African National Congress (ANC) forced then-president Jacob Zuma to resign after nine years dominated by corruption allegations and economic problems. The party that wins the most seats in parliament selects the country’s president, who will be sworn in on May 25. “The outcome of this election will be a major boost for investors… and investor confidence, it’s about confidence and about the future,” Ramaphosa said after voting on Wednesday. The ANC’s reputation was badly sullied under Zuma. “We apologise for our mistakes.” Support for the ANC has fallen in every election since 2004 with the party taking 54 percent in 2016 municipal elections, compared with 62 percent in 2014’s national vote. Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress (ANC) were swept to power with a landslide in the country’s first multi-racial polls that marked the end of apartheid in 1994. Most opinion surveys suggest the ANC will secure nearly 60 percent of the vote, thanks to Ramaphosa’s appeal and a fractured opposition. Dirk Coetzee, a professor at UNISA’s political science department, said “the higher the percentage for the ANC, the more it will give him (Ramaphosa) bargaining power”. “If Ramaphosa gets below 50 percent he will be very vulnerable” to challenges from rivals within the ANC, he added. The poor are getting poorer’ The ANC has been confronted by deepening public anger over its failure to tackle poverty and inequality in post-apartheid South Africa. “We have given them 25 years but the poor are getting poorer and the rich richer,” said voter Anmareth Preece, 28, a teacher from Coligny in North West province. “We need a government that governs for the people, not for themselves.” The economy grew just 0.8 percent in 2018 and unemployment hovers around 27 percent — soaring to over 50 percent among young people. Of the 47 opposition parties in the race, only the main opposition centrist DA and the radical-left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) are major players. The DA is hoping to shed its image as a white, middle-class party. Its first black leader, Mmusi Maimane, is contesting his maiden general election since taking the helm in 2015, and is expected to make modest gains on the DA’s 2014 vote share of 22 percent. The EFF, founded six years ago by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, is predicted to make major gains, growing from 6.3 percent to a forecast 11 percent. The partial results show it at eight percent. “The ANC has taken people for granted. There is some arrogance which has crept in,” said voter Mandla Booi, 45, in Port Elizabeth on the south coast. The EFF, which appeals mainly to young voters and the poor, has campaigned on a policy of seizing land from white owners to give to blacks. Enforced land redistribution is also ANC policy — alarming some investors. Earlier: About 26.8 million voters were registered to cast their ballots at 22,925 polling stations countrywide. IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela confirmed on Wednesday night that the first results were expected from about 11pm, with the smaller stations normally reporting results first. She told IOL: “At 9pm when our voting stations close our officials and political parties will take a two-minute break and then they begin the sorting and the counting. After they have done the sorting and the counting, historically the first station that posts the results comes somewhere between 11pm and midnight.” Results only really started streaming in from around 3am on Thursday from other smaller voting stations, with the next morning at 11am usually the time when bigger data streams from other stations began to flood in. The IEC is expected to announce the final results on Saturday, with political parties given until Friday to lodge objections. Earlier, South Africans went to the polls in the country’s sixth democratic elections on Wednesday, braving cold weather, rains and a few operational glitches to elect a new political leadership that faces the daunting task of kickstarting the stalled economy. President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is likely to keep its 25-year-long grip on power, but could get less than the 62.15 percent of votes it won at the previous national elections in 2014, as some voters vent their anger over a lack of jobs, poor basic services and allegations of government corruption in recent years. Ramaphosa, who cast his ballot in Johannesburg’s Soweto township, pleaded with the electorate not to boycott the polls, saying even those who opted to stage protests on election day, should first vote. “I have always said to our people who want to protest and not vote that that is not the right way of raising issues,” the president said. “Go and vote and, after that, you can stand and say: I have voted because I want my issues to be addressed.” He said this as community protests were reported in Cape Town, Durban and Vuwani in Limpopo where residents burnt tyres and barricaded roads, vowing not to vote until the government addressed their gripes. At the Boshoek settlement outside Rustenburg in North West, which alongside KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) was identified as a potentially troublesome province on election day, disgruntled residents stuck to their vow to ignore the polls and went about their normal business. “I won’t be voting today. I voted before but I live worse than before. I live in a rotting tent, when it rains I get wet but I am supposed to vote. No change, no vote,” said Rosina Mokoe. But 89-year-old granny Thokozile Mkhwanazi, from Mahangin in rural KZN, said she would continue voting as long as she lived, insisting that life was much better than what it was under white apartheid rule. “We were living in difficult times, where your life was being controlled by someone else; we used to work at the farms without getting paid,” Mkhwanazi recalled. It is done!! Thank you blacks for the love and support you continue to pledge for our movement @BLF_SouthAfrica Ayesab'amagwala!#TakeBLFtoParliament #VoteBLF pic.twitter.com/0uvL7MoOpH — ZaneleLwana (@ZaneleLwana) May 8, 2019 Voting started on time at 7am at several of the country’s 22,924 polling stations, but there were delays at others as electoral officials grappled with equipment failure, among some challenges. In Cape Town, police had to intervene at polling station at Samora Machel in ward 88 after a crowd angry over standing in the rain for a long time tried to force their way in. An Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) official who declined to be named said his team had been issued with only one scanner, resulting in long delays in processing voters. There was drama outside a polling station in Port Elizabeth when police and the military were called to inspect a house alleged to be storing a ballot box, with the ANC accusing the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) of nefarious intent. However, it later emerged that the box in question was a black utility box used to store toilet rolls.<doc-sep>Final results won’t be official for a few days yet, but the first batch of results from the 2019 election is expected before midnight. So says the Electoral Commission (IEC), which was commenting after voting came to an end on Wednesday. Voting stations had closed at 9pm, except for those people who were in the queue. Some results, however, will be out in just a few hours. "The first results from voting districts with the smallest number of voters are expected to reflect on the results system before midnight tonight," the IEC said.<doc-sep>This week, South Africa went to the polls to elect a new government. Now the TimesLIVE 2019 elections website brings the results to life in real time with interactive maps and displays, using information sourced from the Electoral Commission of SA. Get a quick overview of results for your areas of interest in the country, like municipalities or provinces, or sign up for notifications for those areas and we'll let you know every time the counting passes a milestone (on the results map, go to your area of interest and click the "Subscribe" button in the results panel to keep up to date).<doc-sep>
More to follow…refresh your browser for the latest. Last updated: 13:30, 11 May 2019. On 8 May 2019, South Africans headed to the polls for the country’s sixth democratic elections. Despite the highest number of voters ever registered, the turnout plummeted to its lowest ever. There has been consternation, too. Read our analysis here. From ballot papers running out, scanners malfunctioning and allegations of double voting, more than half of the parties contesting the 2019 elections have vowed to take action against the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Nonetheless, after a lengthy counting and auditing process, the results are out. Well, almost. The IEC first said they expected to reach the 90% counting mark by 21:00 on Thursday, but that turned out to be widely ambitious. Then, they expected everything to be concluded by midnight on 10 May. After that clock struck, there were a few carriages yet to turn into pumpkins. But the completion was at nearly 99% by 00:12 with Gauteng, one of the most hotly contested provinces, having the largest number of voting districts outstanding, the total vote count completed was 91%. The rest of the results were pretty clear, however. They’re not official just yet – that only happens once time has been allowed for everyone to raise their objections. Nationally, however, nothing will change. ANC win re-election, but lose support South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s ruling ANC won re-election on Friday with an absolute majority in parliament, results showed, but with diminished support, complicating economic revival and anti-corruption efforts. The results, published by the electoral commission, are the party’s worst national showing since Nelson Mandela led it to victory in the first multi-racial polls after apartheid ended in 1994. Results released by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) showed the ANC’s closest rival, the main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), but only marginally. The Economic Freedom Fighters, founded six years ago by former ANC youth leader Julius Malema, was in third place, Note: The information below will be updated with the full results list once ratified by the IEC. Where provincial results were still outstanding, it is noted as such and you can follow the live leaderboards for those provinces by clicking through below. National results Winner: ANC Top five:ANC, DA, EFF, IFP and VF+. These parties earned a seat in parliament Seats will be confirmed on Saturday, 11 May 2018. Provincial results North West Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (61.87%), EFF (18.64%), DA (11.18%), VF+ (4.32%) and UCDP (0.48%). Northern Cape Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (57.54 %), DA (25.51 %), EFF (9.71 %), VF+ (2.68 %) and COPE (0.86 %). Mpumalanga Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (70.58 %), EFF (12.79 %), DA (9.77 %), VF+ (2.43 %) and BRA (0.72 %). Limpopo Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (75.49 %), EFF (14.43 %), DA (5.40 %), VF+ and ACP (1.42 %). Kwa-Zulu Natal Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (54.22 %), IFP (16.34 %), DA (13.90 %), EFF ((9.71 %) and NFP (1.57 %). Eastern Cape Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (68.74 %,) DA (15.73 %), EFF (7.84 %), UDM (2.60 %) and ATM (1.52 %). Free State Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (61.14 %), DA (17.58 %), EFF (12.58 %), VF+ (3.96 %) and ATM (0.78 %). Gauteng Winner: ANC Top five: ANC (50.19 %), DA (27.45 %), EFF (14.69 %), VF+ (3.56 %) and IFP (0.89 %). Western Cape Winner: DA Top five: DA (55.45 %), ANC (28.64 %), EFF (4.04 %), GOOD (3.01 %) and ACDP (2.66 %).