PRETORIA – Although the 2019 election results are still trickling in, the African National Congress (ANC) is surging towards glory.
The ruling party is well under its count which they registered five years ago as the results captured on Friday morning suggest.
The updates coming in from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) election centre in Tshwane from by 07h00 suggest that about 17,208 of 22,925 of the voting districts or 75.06% had declared their results.
In addition, the tallies up on the large leader board place Cyril Ramaphosa’s party in the driving seat with 57.21% of the votes, Mmusi Mmaimane’s Democratic Alliance (DA) at 21.84% of the votes whilst Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) sit at 10.08%.
Moreover, the trio is followed by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) under the leadership of Mangosuthu Buthelezi, which occupies the fourth spot at 2.89%.
A surprise package in the form of the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) remains at 2.48%, African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) with 0.92% of the votes and the United Democratic Movement (UDM) at 0.53%.
According to the IEC, more than 26 million voters were registered to vote in Wednesday’s elections, but the Electoral Commission count thus far puts the voter turnout at 65.44%.
Provincial results
Shifting focus to the provincial polls, the Eastern Cape, North West, Western Cape and the Northern Cape have captured more than 90% of their voting districts.
On the other hand, the election commission said the tallies are set to change as voting continues on Friday.
Rand reaction
With the election results not yet finalized, market analysts say the rand traded mostly flat during local trading sessions, but experienced some relief in the overnight sessions.
However, according to Chief Economist at Efficient Group Dawie Roodt, it’s not only the Rand, but the equity markets are under pressure.
“It’s not only the Rand. The cleverest of all markets, as far as I’m concerned, is the Bond market and we’ve seen the Bond market also gaining a couple of points at the moment,” Roodt said to the SABC on Thursday.
“The equity market is under a lot of pressure on Wednesday. But it’s not because of local conditions or because of elections. It is because of international stuff. It’s because of what Donald Trump is doing. It’s the trade war between the Americans and the Chinese,” Roodt explained.
– Dollar/Rand: R14.28 (-0.42%)
– Pound/Rand: R18.59 (-0.36%)
– Euro/Rand: R16.04 (-0.25%)
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