The race isn't over yet

Yesterday was voting day for South Africa. It was declared a public holiday so people could get up early, go and stand in queues and make their voices heard by checking the box of their favourite political party. Today, the results are flowing in bit by bit as the votes are counted and we come ever closer to knowing what the final numbers will be.

 

As of 9:36 A.M. (SAT), 3 666 862 votes were counted with 2 354 480 of those votes being cast for South Africa’s ruling party and favourite to win the ANC (African National Congress). Coming in second and third respectively are the DA (Democratic Alliance) with 702 818 votes and COPE (Congress of the People) with 282 310 votes.

 

Those numbers are on a national front though. Whilst the ANC have taken the lead overall, there is still one province where they aren’t in front – the Western Cape.  At the tip of the nation, the DA is leading with 268 198 votes out of 517 724.

 

These are of course early numbers and we may have to wait a few hours to find out anything definite – after all, there are 23 million voters and this has looked like the biggest election since South Africa’s first in 1994. There’s a big difference between the number of votes counted and the number registered.

 

For now, sit tight, but we’ll have results for you tomorrow (hopefully).