TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP), Golkar and Gerindra have come out on top in the 2019 general elections, according to preliminary vote count results of the General Election Commission (KPU). PDIP won 19.97 percent of the total votes, Golkar 13.15 percent, and Gerindra 11.66 percent, based on data of the Commission's Vote Count Information System (Situng) posted on its official website on Sunday. Below the top three, there are Nasdem 9.59 percent, PKB 9.2 percent, Demokrat 7.85 percent, PKS 7.16 percent, PAN 6.96 percent, and PPP 4.19 percent. Seven other political parties participating in this year's legislative elections - Perindo, Berkarya, Hanura, PSI, PBB, PKPI, and Garuda, have not met the parliamentary threshold. The vote count of the 2019 legislative elections has reached 38.96 percent or 316,933 polling stations (TPS) out of the total 813,350 TPS. KPU will announce the final results of the simultaneous legislative and presidential elections on May 22, 2019. On April 17, 2019, Indonesia held simultaneous legislative and presidential elections, believed to be the world's largest and most complex single-day democratic exercise. The mammoth elections witnessed the unforeseen deaths of 574 officers, including polling attendants, election supervisors, and police officers, due to exhaustion while fulfilling their electoral duties. Over 3,700 polling station officers fell ill due to fatigue after clocking prolonged hours, reaching over 24 hours before, during, and after polling day. Several doctors and politicians, however, called for an investigation of the deaths. Read also: Indonesians Overseas Favor Jokowi in Presidential Election In the meantime, on May 3, 2019, the Information Technology (IT) Volunteers of the Prabowo Subianto Campaign Team (BPN) brought to the notice of the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) a total of 73,716 mistaken vote data entries on KPU's Situng. Mustofa Nahrawardaya, coordinator of the BPN's IT Volunteers, had earlier remarked that inconsistencies in the vote data entry took place in at least 477,021 polling stations. "Central Java recorded the largest number of inconsistencies, particularly in 7,666 polling stations, some 5,826 polling stations in East Java, 4,327 polling stations in North Sumatra, 3,296 polling stations in South Sumatra, and 3,219 polling stations in South Sulawesi," he stated. He appealed to the Commission to put a stop to data entries on the Situng and to conduct a forensic audit of the KPU IT. The KPU, however, said the inconsistencies were caused by human errors. On May 10, the Prabowo Subianto team once again reported its findings on alleged election fraud to Bawaslu . "There are five alleged cases of election fraud to be reported by BPN's advocacy and legal directorate to Bawaslu," Ferry Juliantono, the team's spokesman, told the press. The violations were related to the use of state resources and money for election purposes, violation of civil servants' neutrality during the 2019 legislative and presidential elections, and cheating concerning C1 form usage. ANTARA<doc-sep>An updated count on South Africa’s election results on Friday morning showed the ruling party, the ANC headed toward victory, although well below its count from five years ago. By 07h00, about 17,208 of 22,925 of the voting districts or 75.06% had declared their results. The tallies up on the large leader board at the IEC’s national results centre in Pretoria, place the African National Congress (ANC) in the lead with 57.21% of the votes, the Democratic Alliance (DA) at 21.84% of the votes and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 10.08%. These are, so far, the leading three parties in the race for the national government. They are followed by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which is currently standing at 2.89%, the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) at 2.48%, African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) with 0.92% of the votes and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) at 0.53%. Over 26 million voters were registered to vote in Wednesday’s elections, but the Electoral Commission count thus far puts the voter turnout at 65.44%. Political parties went into the polls with different targets. The ANC wanted to stay in power with over 60% of the voters support; the DA wanted to grow its party support, while the EFF was hoping to double their support. However, so far the biggest surprise in these elections is the performance of the VF Plus which has gained more voters in the provinces. Provincial results Looking at the results thus far from the provinces, the Eastern Cape, North West, Western Cape and the Northern Cape have captured more than 90% of their voting districts. In the Western Cape, where 94.43% of the districts were captured, data shows that the DA is standing on 54.71%, the ANC on 29.22 % and the EFF on 4.04% while the new party on the block, GOOD, stands on 3.03%. In North West, 94.29% of the voting districts have been captured. The ANC is at 62.39%, followed by the EFF at 18.48%, then the DA at 10.87% and the VF Plus at 10.87%. About 91.34% of the districts have been captured in the Eastern Cape. Their tallies puts the ANC in the lead with 68.48%, the DA at 15.99%, the EFF at 7.78% while the UDM is at 2.63 % of the votes. In the hotly contested Gauteng province, only 55.83% of voting districts have been captured, where the ANC seems to be skating on thin ice by gaining 50.62% of the votes, the DA is at 27.27%, the EFF at 14.18%, the VF Plus at 3.82% and the IFP at 3.82%. About 62.93% of the voting districts have been captured in KwaZulu-Natal, which was another province eyed by the political parties. The Electoral Commission count thus far shows that the ANC is sitting at 52.88%, the IFP at 16.98%, the DA at 16.98%, the EFF at 8.79% and the NFP at 1.35% votes. Similar trends are seen in the Free State – where 65.66% of the districts have captured their votes. The ANC leads with 62.61% of the votes, the DA follows with 17.05%, the EFF closely follows with 11.63% and VF Plus is on 3.97%. The surprise in this province is the new party, the ATM, which stands 3.97%. In Limpopo, 60.6% of the districts have declared their votes which shows that the ANC has gained 75.45% of the votes, followed by the EFF on 14.35%, the DA on 5.46%. Mpumalanga has captured 87.81% of their total voting districts, where data puts the ANC in the lead with 69.88%, the EFF at 13.01%, the DA is at 9.98 %, the VF Plus at 2.53 %, BRA at 0.80 % and ATM at 0.62%. About 97.45% voting districts have been captured in the Northern Cape. Tallies show that the ANC will remain in power with 57.25%, then the DA with 25.82%, the EFF with 9.57%, VF Plus with 9.57% and COPE with 0.87% of the vote. These tallies are set to change as voting continues on Friday. Rand reaction Bianca Botes, corporate treasury manager at Peregrine Treasury Solutions said that the rand traded mostly flat during local trading sessions, while experiencing some relief in the overnight sessions. “The local election has come and gone and, as expected, the ANC is leading the national race, with the CSIR predicting a 57.4% result for the ANC, followed by the DA at 21.5% and the EFF as 9.5%. “While the win by the ANC has been largely expected to be rand positive, the current global risk-off environment affected by the US-China trade dynamic has put a dampener on the performance of the local currency,” Botes said. “As the ANC win is digested, markets will swiftly shift their focus to the subsequent actions of the ruling partly, including the announcement of Cabinet by president Cyril Ramaphosa, the State of the Nation address due to follow in June, as well as policies relating to expropriation of land without compensation. “A key focus as we head in to post-election season will be Eskom and the anticipated restructuring of the power utility as this dilemma remains the biggest threat to economic growth.” Botes said that the global dynamic is largely overshadowing the local developments in terms of elections, “and for the time being we are playing wait and see regarding the threats made by president Donald Trump”. Should The follow through on his trade threats, the rand could once again lean towards weakness, potentially targeting R14.60/$, Botes said. “The flip side, however, should an agreement be reached and Trump does not impose additional tariffs, sees markets resetting to risk-on dynamics, while refocusing on the local elements at play. This could see the rand gain some momentum on the back of carry trade, to target levels as low as R14.10. All we can do now is wait. “The broader range of the rand has been between R14.35 and R14.48, occasionally rising in the overnight session to R14.30, with key support and resistance at R14.30 and R14.50.” The local unit traded at the following levels against the major currencies, shortly before 09h00 on Friday: Dollar/Rand: R14.28 (-0.42%) Pound/Rand: R18.59 (-0.36%) Euro/Rand: R16.04 (-0.25%)<doc-sep>Citizen reporter The party says it will be better prepared in future. Black First Land First (BLF) has thanked its followers who voted on Wednesday. The party told its followers not to despair should the results not be in their favour and only treat this year’s elections as a learning curve. It said: “Whatever the final outcomes, we are resolved to build our movement into the formidable force it must be to advance the course of our people. As we await the final results, we thank all who have helped and often sacrificed time and resources to keep our movement going. The struggle for land and black dignity continues. Land or death! “BLF wishes to thank all the voters which voted for our movement. The final result will be announced on Saturday. BLF knows for a fact that thousands voted for our movement. BLF is now etched in the imagination of our people. The future belongs to the Black Agenda.” The party, however, further alleged – without mentioning their names – that parties of white monopoly capital and the “London agenda” spent millions on the elections, and therefore had more campaign resources, while “land thieves” kept the party “locked” in court cases. Even the media and social media platforms ran a negative campaign against the party, it alleged. As a result, the party could not properly campaign. “In future, we shall prepare ourselves better to protect our votes. We have learned significant lessons,” it said. Early counting placed the BLF in the far distance with less than 2,500 votes of the ballots counted so far. Early votes generally always come in from the smaller voting stations first, which tend to be mainly in rural areas. BLF spokesperson Lindsay Maasdorp told eNCA that they still felt confident about going to parliament because most votes had not yet been counted in their “strongholds”, especially Gauteng. They would need about 40,000 more votes to guarantee that. Their nemesis, the Freedom Front Plus, were faring far better in initial tallies. You can follow the results data as they are announced by the IEC by accessing The Citizen’s results page here. For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.<doc-sep>ANA ATM president Vuyolwethu Zungula has denied allegations that it was formed by the ANC faction aligned to former president Jacob Zuma. As election results trickled in at the IEC national operations centre on Thursday night, the African Transformation Movement (ATM) had surpassed parties such as the Congress of the People and Agang SA. Almost 60% of the vote had been counted. The ATM, established by church formations in 2018, received 43,919 national votes from just over 9 million counted at around 7 pm. The church congregations in the Eastern Cape bolstered the party’s performance with 22,589 votes, followed by Kwazulu-Natal with 5,867 and Gauteng at 5,000. ALSO READ: ACM, BLF, ATM and many other small parties are furious, vow to challenge election results The party’s head of policy, former media owner Mzwanele Manyi, earlier led an impromptu protest by a group of disgruntled parties at the results centre. The parties included BLF, SWRP and ACM, who expressed dissatisfaction with the IEC processes. The political parties have threatened to approach the Electoral Court. ATM, led by its president Vuyolwethu Zungula, has denied allegations that it was formed by the ANC faction aligned to former president Jacob Zuma in an attempt to weaken those aligned with president Cyril Ramaphosa within the governing party. – African News Agency (ANA) For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.<doc-sep>
Vote counting in the 2019 National and Provincial Elections has reached the final stages with the Independent Electoral Commission’s (IEC) vote capturing process at 99.77%, shortly after 6am. According to the leader board at the commission’s national Results Operation Centre (ROC) in Pretoria, not only was the vote capturing process at 99.77% but valid votes cast had exceeded the 17 million mark. A total of 26.7 million South Africans had registered to vote in the country’s sixth National and Provincial Elections. On Saturday morning, there had been 17 338 063 valid votes cast. As at 6:42am, a total 22 874 out of a total 22 925 voting districts had completed counting and the leader board showed that the African National Congress (ANC) had garnered 9 967 153 (57.49 %) votes while the Democratic Alliance (DA) was sitting at 3 606 459 (20.79%) votes and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) at 1 864 481 (10.76%) in the national results so far. These are the three parties that are leading in the race for national government. Find the results here However, other political parties have made their mark on the leader board with the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) garnering 587 447 of the votes so far, followed by the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) at 412 597 and the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) at 145 665. Provincial results On a provincial basis, vote counting in the Eastern Cape had been completed at the province’s 4791 voting districts with the ANC leading with 68.74% of the vote, followed closely by the DA with 15.73% of vote. Counting was also complete in the Free State with the ANC obtaining 61.14% of the votes cast the province’s 1529 voting districts In Gauteng, counting was completed in 2719 of the 2771 district (98.12%) with the ANC at the front of the pack at 49.96% of the votes, followed by the DA with 27.73% of votes and the EFF at 14.59% of the vote. Counting has been completed in KwaZulu-Natal’s 4885 voting districts with the ANC obtaining the lion’s share of the vote at 54.22%, followed by the IFP at 16.34% placing it as the official opposition in the provincial legislature. Counting has been completed in Limpopo’s 3157 voting districts with the ANC winning the majoring of 75.49% of the vote followed by the EFF at 14.43%. Mpumalanga has also completed vote counting at 1772 of its voting districts with the ANC sitting at the top of the food chain with 70.58% of the vote followed by the EFF at 12.79% of votes. In the Northern Cape, the ANC had secured 57.54% of the vote, followed by the DA at 25.51% of the vote after vote counting concluded at the province’s 707 voting districts. The North West has also concluded counting at its 1733 voting districts, with the ANC in the lead at 61.87% followed by the EFF at 18.64%. The DA obtained the lion’s share of votes in the Western Cape with 55.45% of the vote followed by the ANC at 28.64%. The IEC is expected to announce the official results of the elections at a ceremony later this evening. Read: Coalitions to look out for after the 2019 electionsCoalitions to look out for after the 2019 elections