First results start trickling in at IEC’s results centre

The atmosphere at the Electoral Commission's national Results Operations Centre (ROC) in Midrand is lively this morning as the first results in the National and Provincial Elections start to trickle in. Tens of thousands of South African citizens made their way to polling stations to exercise their right to vote in the 7th democratic elections on Wednesday. As polling stations across the country officially closed last night, all eyes have turned towards the critical process of counting votes and the leaderboards at the ROC. As at 9:00 am on Thursday, 2 648 of 23 293 (or 11.37%) of the voting districts of the vote-counting nationally had been completed. According to data at the same time, the African National Congress (ANC) was leading with a total of 414 292 (42.83%) votes, followed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) with 247 280 (25.56%), and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) with 80 129 (8.28%) votes had been casted national. Results continue to come in and the leaderboards continue to be updated. Source: South African Government News Agency