LIVE: DA secures majority again in Western Cape election results
The counting of ballots has been completed in the province, and the governing party will avoid needing a coalition partner.
DA Premier candidate for the Western Cape Alan Winde along with Carl Pophaim, Albert Fritz and Phumzile van Damme briefed the media at the Western Cape Provincial Legislature after plugging the party’s registration posters on Wale Street in Cape Town on Monday. PHOTO: Courtney Africa/African News Agency(ANA)
With 100% of the vote in the Western Cape counted on Friday, the DA would keep governing the province without the need for a coalition partner.
The ANC had already conceded yesterday.
With more than 2 million votes cast, the DA had more than 55% of the vote, followed by the ANC at under 28.64% and the EFF with just more than 4%.
Patricia de Lille’s new party GOOD was in fourth with 3.1% of the vote.
The DA got 57% of the vote in the Western Cape in 2014.
GOOD was created after an acrimonious split from the DA last year during a very public divorce that saw De Lille leaving and taking several DA officials with her.
The Freedom Front Plus, EFF and African Christian Democratic Party were in fifth and sixth, respectively, with FF+ continuing to show signs of the overall growth they have demonstrated in this year’s elections.
Follow the election results as they happen below. You can click or tap on each of the provinces to bring up the provincial results.
The Democratic Alliance Western Cape premier candidate Alan Winde was earlier confident the party would retain control of the province.
Speaking at the IEC results centre in Cape Town on Thursday, a day after national elections, Winde said it was “so far, so good” for the DA despite the polls predicting the opposite at the end of last year.
Winde said it had been a tough and gruelling campaign after months of bitter political infighting which saw De Lille being booted out of the party under a cloud of corruption allegations.
“It was a whole range of issues, from the drought to infighting, people perceiving whether delivery takes place or not,” he said.
“We might brag that we have the lowest unemployment rate in South Africa but at the end of the day there are so many millions of people in the country and in this province thousands who don’t have a job, and a lot of people moving here for opportunities which puts huge pressure on the system. It’s a complex environment in which to operate, but it looks like we’ve managed to retain it.”
He said De Lille’s departure from the party had not significantly impacted the votes.
On Wednesday, there were a number of complaints about voting stations running out of ballot papers in the Mother City, but Winde said the DA was addressing the hiccoughs.
“A lot of ballot paper issues across the board, in various areas; also barcode readers, we had an issue with them; the training and capabilities of a number of IEC officials I was worried about it; those are all the things we have lodged,” he said.
“The big question is, was it material? Will it have an impact on the outcome? And that’s what they are looking at and that is what the analysis will establish.” – African News Agency (ANA)
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