With a quarter of the results from South Africa’s local government elections still needing to be revealed, the country’s second-largest political party had already topped its performance in the 2011 elections.
Those elections, which were at the time marked as a milestone for the Democratic Alliance, saw the party grab 23.94 percent of the total votes or almost 6.39 million votes.
By Thursday night, that figure was already sitting at 6.52 million votes or 26.34 percent. In 2011, the party took control of 18 municipalities, including the City of Cape Town.
Before any finalisation of results for the 2016 elections, the party was listed as leading in 21 councils compared to the 118 of the ANC.
In a number of municipalities, such as Mtubatuba and Abaqulusi in KwaZulu-Natal, the party could find itself being the kingmaker.
In 2011, the ANC won in 198 councils with a total of 16.55 million votes or 62 percent.
By midnight on Thursday, the Electoral Commission of South Africa’s (IEC) website showed the party as having secured 54.32 percent of the vote or 13.48 million votes.
Reporting by
[Source: ANA]
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