Pretoria - The IEC’s national results centre in Pretoria is a hive of activity as voting results have started trickling in from across the country with the ANC showing a lead.
So far at 7am over 2 085 801 votes having been counted across the country.
The ANC has received about 1 171 934 of the votes, the DA at 580 287 and the EFF following at 170 703.
A majority of the results streaming have been from small districts across the country. With the provincial outlook, in Gauteng results have the ANC receiving 150 595, with the DA at 75 780 and the EFF at 38 956.
The latest on the results board at the IEC Results Operation Centre. That’s for the national results. @IOL pic.twitter.com/i6a1zFW86W
— Zintle (@ZintleMahlati) May 9, 2019
In the Western Cape, the DA has the lead with 304 017 votes while the ANC lags behind with 138 628. The EFF has 14 769 votes so far in the province.
The DA said it was encouraged thus far by the results trickling in, especially in the Western Cape where the party faces some competition from Patricia de Lille's GOOD party.
Party spokesperson Solly Malatsi told IOL the party was not worried about any potential impact GOOD may have in the Western Cape.
"It's not having a dent whatsoever. We're not worried about GOOD at all. We've put in a solid campaign, we have infrastructure that we believe no other party has," he said.
"We're very content with the preliminary indication on results... it's still very, very early to have a clear indication of where it will go but we're very encouraged by what we're seeing."
Malatsi also expressed confidence in the party's performance in Gauteng, especially as results from the bigger stations trickle in.
Speaking of the double voting reports that have raised questions on the integrity of the electoral process, Malatsi confirmed the party had raised its concerns with the IEC.
"These incidents don't help, they don't help at all because we strongly they are avoidable, could've been prevented and the fact that they are happening raises serious concerns," he said.
Political parties have been stationed at the national results centre hovering over computers in anticipation of figuring out where their parties stand on the leader board.
IEC spokesperson Kate Bapela said on Wednesday that bigger voting district numbers could likely start streaming in at 11 am.
“The IEC as an organisation does not get the results first and check whether they can be broadcast or not we see them here with you guys. Normally around 3 am in the morning a lot of voting stations, especially those without big numbers, they start posting on the results board. By the time we get to the morning at around 11 am (on Thursday) a lot of reporting will happen,” she said.
The first vote results started trickling in on Wednesday night with a small rural village in the Eastern Cape.
IEC CEO Sy Mamabolo announced the first stream of results on Wednesday night from Umzimvubu in the Eastern Cape.
There were 24 votes cast in the village with 11 going to ANC and 8 to the EFF. The UDM received two votes while the PAC, ASC and ATM received one vote each.