ELECTIONS 2024 LIVE UPDATES: MK overtakes EFF in national polls

The Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) has officially announced its first set of results as vote counting began just after midnight after the 29 May elections.

The live results, which are trickling in as vote counting continues, indicate the African National Congress (ANC) is in the lead. The Democratic Alliance (DA) is in second position and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in third. The newly formed Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party is among the top parties on the leaderboard.

The first results from the 2024 elections came through at 00:18 from the Winnie Madikizela-Mandela municipality in the Eastern Cape.

Watch Sy Mamabolo speaking about the vote counting process

The final result is not expected to be known before the weekend.

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Higher turnout

Extraordinarily long queues characterised the 2024 provincial and general elections, with millions of South Africans gathering early on Wednesday morning to cast their ballot in the country’s seventh democratic elections.

Chief electoral officer Sy Mamabolo on Wednesday evening said a higher turnout was achieved during the 2024 elections than the 66% that was achieved in 2019.

During the briefing, Mamabolo said a last-minute rush in urban voting and high turnout were to blame for Wednesday’s late finish, but many voters complained at polling stations that the three-ballot system was too complex.

“We are experiencing a late surge and are processing a large number of voters,” IEC chief Sy Mamabolo told reporters. He predicted that the final turnout figure would be “well beyond the 66 percent recorded in the last election in 2019.”

Vote counting

The IEC said in order to improve the quality of the counting and the completion of result slips, it has instituted a new category of staff who will support the presiding officer with the counting effort.

“The recruitment criteria for these staff was slightly different from the rest as high levels of numeracy are mandatory. Three such staff were being appointed for each voting station and each sub-station where we operate a voting centre,” the IEC said.

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