elections we wish to announce that the counting, capturing and auditing of
votes is nearly finished. We would further like to inform you that by tomorrow
the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) will make an official announcement
to the nation on the final results.
The time is now fast approaching where all the results of the municipal
elections will be known and where this centre will be wound up.
Presently the results of 99.66 percent of the voting districts in which
voting took place have been captured and 96.94 percent have been audited as
well.
The most prominent municipalities where results are still awaited are
Ekurhuleni and eThekwini. We are aiming to have them available later in the day
in most cases.
The turnout in the elections at this stage stands at 48,42 percent, which is
a figure very similar to that achieved in 2000. IEC had hoped that the turnout
figure would reach 50 percent but the difficult weather conditions on Wednesday
probably prevented that.
There have been wide variations in the turnout in different provinces.
Details in this respect are as follows:
Province: percentage voter turnout
Eastern Cape: 56.06 percent
Free State: 47.22 percent
Gauteng: 42.46 percent
KwaZulu-Natal: 50.64 percent
Limpopo: 44.75 percent
Mpumalanga: 46.35 percent
North West: 45.63 percent
Northern Cape: 53.51 percent
Western Cape: 51.79 percent
There have been some interesting situations as far as results are concerned.
In ward 15 in Ditsobotla (Lichtenburg) there was a draw between an independent
candidate and a candidate from the ANC. The winner will shortly be determined
with the toss of a coin as legally prescribed.
A further situation that is rather unique also occurred with the allocation
of PR seats in the Indaka municipality in KwaZulu-Natal. Once the first round
of seats was allocated the highest remainders of two parties were exactly
equal. Fortunately two seats still had to be allocated and this saved the day
as there was, unlike with a ward draw, no legal remedy for it.
South Africa should be proud that its young democracy is maturing. We have
run three national and provincial elections and two nation-wide local
government elections all of which were declared free and fair. I am quite
certain that these elections will be pronounced as such.
We are now 12 years into democracy and have laid the foundations for the
design and implementation of policies to ensure democratic consolidation
competitive multiparty engagement and citizen participation.
Public interest in the result process has been very intense. On 28 February
2006 our public website had 10 261 hits and this increased to 122 456 hits on
election day. However, with results starting to be available yesterday the hits
increased to 266 194 and sever capacity at the IEC had to be increased. By
mid-day today the website had a further 82 503 hits.
As we are winding up with the public and the media eagerly awaiting the
final few results with us, I would like to thank the political parties and
media present at the centre over the past few days for the good spirit and
co-operation that prevailed. For the staff of the Commission I also only have
praise.
You may have noticed that I did not refer to Johannesburg when I earlier
mentioned outstanding results. The reason for that is that the result became
available shortly before this briefing began and we will release it at the
conclusion of the briefing.
Enquiries:
Lydia Young
Cell: 082 650 8652
Issued by: Independent Electoral Commission
3 March 2006
