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>With only 16.66% of the voting districts having completed their counting so far, the results up on the leader board at the IEC’s National Results Operation Centre in Pretoria, are far from final. Results have been trickling in overnight, and current data shows that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is enjoying an early lead nationally. Just before 7am on Thursday, the ANC was enjoying a lead of 927 857 (53.35 %) voter support nationally. The party was followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 480 992 (27.66 %) votes. The red berets, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), were at 133 640 (7.68 %) votes. The country’s attention turned to vote-counting soon after voting stations closed at 9pm on Wednesday in the National and Provincial Elections. According to the data so far from the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) early this morning, the voter turnout was at 64.84 % with total vote cast sitting at 504 717. The voting population is 3 128 567 with 1 579 voting districts. Data shows the smaller parties were suffering as the contest seems to be between the ANC, DA and the EFF. In terms of the provincial government breakdown – the ANC gained 120 854 (53.17 %) votes, the DA 57 282 (25.20 %) votes and the EFF 30 425 (13.39 %) votes in Gauteng. So far, 277 (10 %) of the voting districts have completed their counting. In the Western Cape only 572 (36.23 %) districts have completed their counting. The data from these districts showed that the DA was leading with 273 005 (58.50 %), ANC at 118 328 (25.36 %) and the newcomer party GOOD gained 16 164 (3.46 %) votes. In KwaZulu-Natal, 347 (7.1 %) voting districts have completed their counting which showed that the ANC was leading with 160 (53.74 %), the IFP with 27 519 (22.35 %) and the DA with 14 952 (12.15 %). In Limpopo, the ANC had 53567 (70.73 %) voter support followed by EFF with 9251 (12.22 %) and the DA with 7088 (9.36 %) votes – with 247 (7.82 %) voting districts having completed their counting. With 1 307 (27.28 %) voting districts completing their counting in the Eastern Cape, the ANC leads with 273 905 (69.36 %) votes, DA at 69 950 (17.71 %) and EFF with sitting with 25 594 (6.48 %) votes. In the Free State, only 286 (18.71 %) voting districts were completed which showed the ANC leading with 53 665 (57.77 %) votes, the DA with 19 978 (21.51 %) and EFF with 9 603 (10.34 %) voter support. A total of 9603 (10.34 %) voting districts were completed in Mpumalanga. So far, the ANC leads with 114 556 (65.49 %) voter support, the DA with 24 453 (13.98 %) and EFF with 20 573 (11.76 %). In the North West, 417 (24.06 %) voting districts have completed their counting. These showed that the ANC was sitting at 93 155 (60.31 %) followed by the EFF at 24 141 (15.63 %) and DA with 19 255 (12.47 %) voter support. The Northern Cape, where 405 (57.28 %) voting districts have completed their counting, had the ANC in the lead with 85 719 (51.80 %) votes, then the DA with 53 852 (32.54 %) and EFF with 11 262 (6.81 %) voter support. These figures are changing as vote-counting continues on Thursday. Regarding two potential instances of double voting on Election Day, the IEC has assured voters of the overall integrity of the electoral process. Two separate instances have been brought to the attention of the IEC of alleged voters who cast more than one vote at different voting stations. An investigation has since been launched into these incidents. The Commission has assured the nation that while investigations are underway, the election process contains a number of checks and safeguards, which together serve to protect the integrity of the processes. These layers of security include: The voters’ roll, which only allows registered voters to vote – and only allows for a single registration per voter; The requirement for voters to produce a valid ID document before they vote; The scanning of ID documents prior to voting; The marking of a voter’s thumb with ink; The completion of a form containing the details of voters and the signing of a sworn declaration by voters where they vote at a voting station at which they are not registered; Party agents and observers monitoring all aspects of the voting, counting and results capturing process; In-built system-based exception reports for which various tolerance levels have been set; Read: 2019 National Elections: what to watch for as counting continues<doc-sep>
Citi Group economist Gina Schoeman had said in a note after meetings in London: “If an ANC-EFF coalition results in Gauteng, investors could become substantially more bearish given the EFF’s desire for broad-based nationalisation.” The DA leads the Western Cape, with 54.88% of the vote, followed by the ANC at 29.36%. A national victory by the ANC of more than 60% is likely to improve investor sentiment, according to some analysts, as it will be seen as boosting President Cyril Ramaphosa’s chances of pushing his economic reform agenda. By 1.30pm the rand was up 0.14% to R14.3541/$, 0.15% to R16.0596/€, and 0.29% to R18.6411/£. The euro was flat at $1.1188. Global trade was cautious, with investors keeping a close eye on ongoing US-China trade talks. The rand strengthened overnight to R14.3075/$ despite some caution as the country awaited the election outcome. The results are expected to be officially announced during the course of the weekend. Gold was up 0.22% to $1,283.52/oz, while platinum had fallen 0.73% to $855.79. Brent crude was 0.22% higher at $70.46 a barrel, paring earlier losses caused by the intensifying trade tension between China and the US. Earlier, local mining production figures surprised to the upside, with a contraction of just 1.1% year-on-year in March, from Bloomberg’s expected fall of 7%. February’s contraction, however, was revised up to 8.1%, from 7.5% previously. “While the sector has been adversely affected by weakness in most global commodity prices, we assess that total mining output was also negatively affected by Eskom power cuts that took place in March,” FNB economist, Matlhodi Matsei said. Manufacturing production grew 1.2% in March despite expectations of a contraction, after the sector saw subdued growth of 0.5% in February. This was in contrast to the expected contraction of 0.2%. BusinessLIVE