Cape Town - The Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape is confident that it will hold onto power in the province, as preliminary results released by the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) as at 6.50am on Friday morning showed the blue party leading the polls ahead of the official announcement of the results.
With counting at 1 032 of 1 572 Voting Districts in the province completed at 6.50am on Friday morning, the party was leading the regional ballot with 590 189 votes (52.61%), while the African National Congress (ANC) followed at 231 178 votes (20.53%).
In a surprise third place was the Patriotic Alliance (PA) with 108 669 votes (9.23%), ahead of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 50 349 votes (4.52%).
The DA’s Western Cape premier candidate, Alan Winde, said while it was too early to celebrate, he was confident that the party would retain its power in the province. Let’s not call it yet, but a couple of stations and analysts have already called it.
“We want to thank our voters, especially those who spent many hours in the queue on Wednesday.
“We are confident that we are not going to have coalitions in the province and that we will get the majority,” he said.
ANC spokesperson in the Western Cape Khalid Sayed poured cold water on the possibility that the DA might retain power in the province, saying it was too early for celebrations.
“It’s too early to announce winners now. There’s still a long way to go. It’s not yet over; there’s still counting going on,” said Sayed.
He said he was confident that the ANC would do well in the elections and increase the number of its supporters in the province.
PA provincial chairperson Joseph Farmer said his party would end the polls very strongly.
“There’s still a long way to go, but we will end very strong. We are confident the PA will do well,” he said.
Asked if his party would consider forming a coalition with other parties, Farmer said: “We will have to see. Coalition is definitely on the cards, but to speculate at this time would be very wrong because that will be done on a different level.
For GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron, hope is not lost as the party had tallied 11 209 votes (1.24%).
“We are waiting for more votes from the urban areas to be counted, as traditionally our strongest supporters are in urban areas.
“After this, we will be able to tell you if we are happy or not with the outcomes of the election,” said Herron.
Political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu said the DA would retain power in the province, but its number would be reduced.
“The PA has surprised everyone, and its getting most of its support from the coloured community. The DA will be in power again, however, not with huge margins.
“As for the ANC, the party will not do well at all. Its challenges will show in this vote, and their reputation is seriously damaged. So we are expecting the DA to retain power in the Western Cape,” Mngomezulu said.
Michael Hendrickse, IEC electoral officer in the Western Cape, said: “It is difficult for me to give a timeline of when we will get the final result.
“A result is considered complete only when a result slip has been scanned into an image, captured on to the results system, audited by independent auditors, and has gone through the automated result system exception parameters,” it said.
Nationally, as at 6.35am on Friday, the ANC was leading the pack on 3 034 025 (42.34%) votes, followed by the DA on 1 676 433 or 23.39%.
In a stunning feat, Jacob Zuma’s MK Party (10.77% nationally) trounced the competition in KwaZulu-Natal, and was in third place, beating the EFF which has 9.62% of the national vote.
zolani.sinxo@inl.co.za