IEC closes in on final counts for results of municipal elections

CAPE TOWN - South Africans are watching with great anticipation as vote counting moves towards completion at various results centres across the country from Wednesday.

The IEC, after two days of counting, said progress in relation to the finalisation of results stood at 69%.

A total of 90% of results were already in the system waiting to be scanned and audited.

"This means of the 64 502 results expected, 58 059 have been captured into the results system.

"Of the 58 059 results captured, 44 707 have been scanned into an image and thus available.

"The completion rate in the Northern Cape is 89%, 82% in the Eastern Cape, while the Western Cape, Mpumalanga and the Free State are at 78%.

"The completion rate in the rest of the provinces ranges between 55% and 69%," the IEC said.

The counting process had been disrupted after stage 2 load shedding was implemented on Tuesday from 4pm to 5am on Wednesday.

Load shedding kicked in after a generation unit at Kusile power station tripped, adding to the constraints.

This had impacted on counting as the IEC was unable to achieve the 90% of results it had hoped for by Wednesday morning.

"The commission remains committed to finalising results expeditiously while taking care to ensure that all necessary verifications are enforced.

"The number of completed municipalities now stands 111 from a total of 257."

Cape Times