IEC satisfied with progress made in capturing Western Cape votes
Provincial head Michael Hendrickse says they are working towards a result by the end of Friday, but he remains mindful that political parties are still able to lodge objections until 9pm.
IEC Western Cape head Michael Hendrickse at the province's results operations centre on 31 May 2024. Picture: Lindsay Dentlinger/Eyewitness News
CAPE TOWN - The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) in the Western Cape says it’s satisfied with the progress it’s making in capturing the vote count.
Provincial head Michael Hendrickse said they were working towards a result by the end of Friday, but he remains mindful that political parties are still able to lodge objections until 9pm.
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Almost 70% of the vote has now been captured in the province, with the Democratic Alliance (DA) looking fairly assured of retaining control.
However, several big voting districts in the metro are still to be captured.
Voting at the Christian Brothers College in Parklands only ended just before 2am on Thursday, where 27 ballot boxes were filled.
“There, the biggest thing was firstly to reconcile,” said Hendrickse.
“You can’t even take one box, count and move on. You first need to create an overall reconciliation of the ballots.”
Hendrickse is cautiously optimistic about an outcome for Western Cape on Friday.
“It’s not just about saying you have to capture so many things - it’s about going through a process.
“At this stage, it’s early hours, but we are definitely pushing to finalise today [Friday].”
The African National Congress (ANC) is currently lagging behind the DA with around 18% of the vote, while the Patriotic Alliance (PA) is running in third, seemingly having snatched votes from the DA and ANC, both of whom have dropped in support since 2019.